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Indiana University’s Archives of African American Music and Culture (AAAMC) and the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra (BSO) are making musical history. In 1978, African American jazz pianist and composer Mickey Tucker received the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant to compose what he calls his magnum opus, Spiritual Collage: A Suite for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra. Inspired by the Negro spiritual, “I’ve Just Come from the Fountain,” this work was written for a seventy-piece orchestra innovatively merging classical and jazz musical traditions. While the NEA grant supported composition and part printing processes, it unfortunately did not fund a culminating performance. As a result, Tucker stored this masterpiece in his home for forty-plus years, where it would seemingly never be heard by anyone. Speaking with AAAMC Director Dr. Tyron Cooper, the eighty-one-year-old composer lamented, “I don’t think I will ever hear this piece performed in my lifetime.” In 2021, Tucker and his wife Sheila donated the only hand-written copy of Spiritual Collage, along with numerous original musical scores, manuscripts, photos, letters, audio and video recordings and other materials, establishing the Mickey Tucker collection at AAAMC. Then, Cooper in collaboration with the BSO’s Artistic Director and Conductor Alejandro Gómez Guillén, formed a partnership between their respective organizations to normalize musical works by Black composers in Bloomington Symphony Orchestra’s concert seasons, where recently BSO has presented the Indiana premiere of Florence Price’s Symphony no. 4, and Dawn Norfleet’s Seed. In keeping with this vision, the BSO will present the world premiere of Tucker’s Spiritual Collage at the Buskirk Chumley Theater on Sunday, October 23rd at 6pm EDT.

Joining the BSO is a lineup of internationally acclaimed jazz greats including pianist Cyrus Chestnut, bassist Avery Sharpe, drummer Ronnie Burrage with saxophonists Gary Bartz, Greg Osby, Carol Sudhalter, and Indianapolis native Rob Dixon. The audience will have an opportunity to meet Mickey and Sheila, as they both join via live stream from their home in Australia. This live performance will be recorded for the award-winning documentary series AAAMC Speaks, which brings AAAMC collections alive through episodes highlighting performers, scholars and industry executives who intersect with the archives’ holdings.

In addition to Tucker’s piece, other works and artists will be showcased, such as Voices Shouting Out by African American composer Okoye Nkeiru, and the BSO 2022 Youth Concerto Competition winner, Elson Koh, performing Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47. This concert is co-sponsored by IU’s Office of the Provost, the City of Bloomington, the Indiana Arts Commission, IU’s Platform Arts and Humanities Laboratory, and IU’s College Arts and Humanities Institute.