The Turtle Creek Chorale performance at Carnegie Hall on July 9. (Photo courtesy Suzanne Taffet)
Dallas’ Turtle Creek Chorale, Denise Lee, and Philly’s Gay Men’s Chorus wow audience at NYC’s Carnegie Hall
David Taffet | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
Wowing a New York audience isn’t easy. But when the Turtle Creek Chorale performed to a packed house at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, July 9, they received standing ovations throughout the show.
TCC’s Artistic Director Sean Baugh assured the audience he wasn’t a bit nervous while reminding himself that Carnegie Hall is “just another room.” But the chorale, along with about 30 members of the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, came through with a stellar performance.
Four numbers opened the show featuring a variety of Black voices from the Chorale and the Chorus, including the TCC staple “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The four soloists — Gregory Perry Jr., Brian Dixon, Rickey Douglas and David Burney — set the right tone to let the audience know without a doubt that this was going to be something special.
Then Denise Lee’s performance of “The Journey Isn’t Over” had the audience up on its feet again.
Baugh joked with the audience that Lee belongs to Dallas. New York can borrow her but can’t have her. Those in the audience from Dallas — and there were quite a few — cheered loudly.
The world premiere of Dreamland: Tulsa 1921, which the Chorale had premiered the previous week at the Meyerson in Dallas, left the audience breathless.
Dreamland tells the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre, a deadly riot sparked by an incendiary and false account in the Tulsa newspaper of a Black man entering an elevator with a white woman. The entire area known as Black Wall Street, one of the most prosperous Black communities in the U.S. at the time, was destroyed in a riot that drew in racists from around the state.
Blocks of businesses were wiped out, and about 1,250 homes were burned to the ground. More than 300 people were killed.
Only now is the city beginning to deal with and discuss the Tulsa Race Massacre and to look for the bodies of those murdered.
The piece, by Marques L.A. Garrett and Sandra Seaton, magnificently conveys the horror of the event, and yet, at the same time, it’s an uplifting piece that looks to a better future. I spoke to a friend of Garrett’s outside the theater who said he was so excited that this first major chorale piece of his was making its
New York premiere at Carnegie Hall and that it was being sung by two magnificent choirs.
The second act began with Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus Artistic Director Joseph Buches leading his group in a version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” While the piece was wonderful — and followed by another standing ovation — the sound was definitely different from the Turtle Creek Chorale sound. The juxtaposition of two wonderful choir directors was an interesting part of the evening.
Finally, a second act highlight that needs to be mentioned was a solo by Fort Worth native Major Attaway, known for his performances in Aladdin and Orange Is The New Black. His “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” was another show stopper.
Bravo to the Turtle Creek Chorale for its Carnegie Hall performance. You put the Dallas arts on the world stage and made Dallas proud.
