Presenting Series: "BE-SPOKEN" with Emorja Roberson ’22 DMA

When: Saturday, January 31, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
Where: Leighton Concert Hall

With 2022's BE-SPOKEN, conductor, vocalist, and composer Emorja Roberson created a living work that adapts to the needs of society. The times have called. Roberson answered with a new version of his roof-raising oratorio. The title is a play on the word "bespoke," and like a custom suit, this concert experience is made to fit—altered with purpose and intention in response to current events, built on the foundations of ancestral memory and the expectation that the arc of the moral universe is still bending toward justice. Drawing from gospel, spoken word, classical, funk, and hip-hop, this work is a lyrical offering—an exploration of Blackness in all its complexity and beauty.

First crafted during a time of global stillness and painful clarity, BE-SPOKEN continues giving voice to stories too often unheard through up to six artists and a hand-selected community choir. The work creates a space where others can tell their story and contribute as collaborative artists. It moves through rhythms of joy and lament, resistance, and restoration. Sacred gospel texts meet modern beats, and out of that meeting comes something bold, tender, and deeply, universally human.

Roberson said, "BE-SPOKEN tends to come around at these moments in our world to reconcile." It's a call to listen to the past, present, and one another. Come with open ears. Leave changed.

*Made possible by a gift from Margaret Rotatori Smith.

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