Our I Love Us team has been outside, enjoying the beauty and splendor of live orchestral music! In addition to last week’s attendance at Nu Deco Ensemble’s 10th anniversary show, our team was present at Carnegie Hall for a special event.

The Gateways Music Festival recently closed out its Spring Festival with a performance that moved both soul and spirit. Taking the stage at Carnegie Hall for the first time since its historic 2022 debut, the Gateways Festival Orchestra delivered an experience that was as technically masterful as it was deeply emotional.

The program, conducted by Anthony Parnther, began with Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 and concluded with William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, with the New York premiere of Damien Sneed’s Reflections of Resilience: Five Spirituals featured in the middle. Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges brought these spirituals to life, filling the hall with ancestral presence and soul.

From her seat in the house, our New York correspondent Kimberly Goodley captured not just what was played, but how it felt. “There were 10 cello players sitting two by two all playing in sync,” she shared with the I Love Us team. “Their fingers and bows danced on the strings. Similar head movements along with the music.”

Throughout the concert, Kimberly described the orchestra as not just playing, but testifying. “As the flute played a small solo, the violins and cellos quietly accompanied,” she observed. “Violins, clarinet had solos during this set. Bursts of applause after every set.”

During intermission, the anticipation grew. “Everyone was buzzing,” she shared.

The second half began with a subtle but powerful shift: the musicians returned with Afrocentric fabrics woven into their formal attire. “Each musician came out adorning a piece of Afrocentric material with their all black attire, tied about either their waist, head, crossbody or shoulder.”

As Bridges took the stage to sing Damien Sneed’s five-movement work, the audience was transported. “Her deep, sultry, full notes brought lots of emotion and feeling to the music,” Kimberly noted. The selections—“Go Down Moses,” “There Is a Balm in Gilead,” “City Called Heaven,” “Sinner Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass,” and “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired”—were met with reverence and awe.

Kimberly paid close attention to every detail: “Percussionists had the responsibility of several instruments. I saw one switching between xylophone, cymbals and congos, carefully putting down the cymbals as not to make noise.” She also noticed how the musicians navigated the endurance of such a demanding performance: “I saw some stretching out their legs, necks, fingers while they were waiting for their parts to come up.”

As a final act of communion and cultural affirmation, conductor Anthony Parnther turned to the audience and invited them to join in singing Lift Every Voice and Sing, performed by the orchestra and Bridges. Audience members were invited to record this moment—and many did, with phones in hand and voices raised high.

Gateways Music Festival continues to be a living, breathing movement of reclamation and reverence, giving Black classical musicians a space to be fully seen and heard. As Kimberly described, “The music began to play… you hear trumpets, cello playing softly. Then the violins and flute. The first set was filled with soft melodies with gradual builds.”

That build never stopped. From rehearsal hums to thunderous applause, Gateways brought Carnegie Hall a concert to remember.

Cover photo: Highlights from the Gateways Music Festival Concert at Carnegie Hall / Photo courtesy of Gateways Music Festival