Reparations NOW Ensemble Pi

• Angélica Negrón (b. 1981): Conversación a distancia:
• 1Negrón: Conversación a distancia05:35
• Courtney Bryan (b. 1982): Carnival for Unity:
• 2Bryan: Carnival for Unity: I. Unity Amongst Youth of the Diaspora03:20
• 3Bryan: Carnival for Unity: II. Secondline for Black Love02:12
• Allison Loggins-Hull (b. 1982): The Pattern:
• 4Loggins-Hull: The Pattern07:06
• Trevor Weston (b. 1967): Pinkster Kings:
• 5Weston: Pinkster Kings: I. Pinkster Procession. Ommegang02:43
• 6Weston: Pinkster Kings: II. Introduction and the King's Letter04:04
• 7Weston: Pinkster Kings: III Greed05:06
• 8Weston: Pinkster Kings: IV. Half Free and Recessional04:37
• Damian Norfleet: Kendi's Secret:
• 9Norfleet: Kendi's Secret01:53
• Trevor Weston: Shape Shifter:
• 10Weston: Shape Shifter10:51
• Courtney Bryan: Elegy:
• 11Bryan: Elegy08:52
• Total Runtime56:19

Info for Reparations NOW

Reparations NOW! is Ensemble Pi’s new project, inspired by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ congressional testimony and Ibram X. Kendi’s best-seller book, How to Be an Antiracist – both of which offer powerful and compelling arguments in support of reparations for the African-American community.

Focusing on social justice, the new-music collective Ensemble Pi has presented concerts in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and opposing police brutality and systemic racism since 2015.

This new project features works from a diverse group of talented composers, including world premieres by Allison Loggins-Hull, Angélica Negrón, and Trevor Weston, and a composition by Courtney Bryan —all commissioned by Ensemble Pi. It also includes Georg Friedrich Haas’ I can’t breathe (In memoriam Eric Garner), and a musical improvisation, Requiem for Elijah, based on the last words of Elijah McClain.

Ensemble Pi is a socially conscious new music group founded in 2002. For the last twenty years, they have presented a Peace Project – an annual multi-media event. Ensemble Pi has championed the work of contemporary composers by premiering and commissioning works by living composers.

Ensemble Pi
Raquel Acevedo Klein, musical direction

Ensemble Pi
socially conscious new-music group founded in 2002, features composers whose work seeks to open a dialogue between ideas and music on some of the world’s current and critical issues. For twenty years, Ensemble Pi has presented an annual Peace Project concert, commissioning new works and collaborating with visual artists, writers, actors, and journalists such as William Kentridge, Naomi Wolf and David Riker. The ensemble was in residence for four American music festivals presented by the American Composers Alliance and now collaborates with the APNM. Symphony Space presented Ensemble Pi in birthday celebrations for composers Gunther Schuller and Krzysztof Penderecki. A multi-year collaboration with composer Elias Tanenbaum resulted in a CD of his chamber music, Keep Going, released by Parma Recordings in 2010 and reviewed by Gramophone as “a touching tribute to Elias Tanenbaum that is played with conviction and verve.” It was followed by a second CD of the music Laura Kaminsky, “played with warmth and variety” (American Record Guide). Ensemble Pi is currently working on its third CD.

Raquel Acevedo Klein
Described as a "force to be reckoned with" by the Washington Post, Raquel Acevedo Klein is an active conductor, vocalist, composer, and instrumentalist. Raquel has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Town Hall, Park Avenue Armory, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, WNYC, BAM, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Celebrate Brooklyn!, the Guggenheim, Rockefeller Center, National Sawdust, Caramoor, Bard Fisher Center and elsewhere.

Raquel conducts for the New York Philharmonic, Roomful of Teeth, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and Beth Morrison Projects among other projects. She has premiered works and operas by Philip Glass, Caroline Shaw, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, Bryce Dessner, and George Lewis to name a few. As a vocalist, she has recorded and performed with artists including Glen Hansard, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, The National, Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, and New York Philharmonic among others. ​

Raquel's performances and curations have caught the attention of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, Time Out New York, The Wire and Hyperallergic. In 2022, Raquel formed a trio with Caroline Shaw and Angélica Negrón and performed a new song cycle comprised of voice, electronics, viola, accordion and more. As part of NY PopsUp, Raquel curated a four-week festival entitled NYC FREE, to celebrate the opening of Little Island in 2021. Raquel premiered an original, audience-interactive vocal symphony entitled "Polyphonic Interlace," made from 40 recorded layers of her voice that audiences can play using their phones.

This album contains no booklet.