Pegasus Opera is honouring the life of its founder Lloyd Newton as part of Black History Month with a concert celebrating Black composers and performing some of their works for the first time.
Black British singers taking part in the historic event include soprano Alison Buchanan, mezzo Denise Hector, tenor Ronald Samm, bass-baritone Keel Watson with Allyson Devenish on piano.
On Saturday 7 October there will be a family event at the Black Cultural Archive from 12 to 1pm – including thirty minutes of opera and thirty minutes of singing activity, followed by a full evening Celebrate Pegasus! concert at Brixton Library from 7-9pm.
Performances will include pieces from Queen Nanny of the Maroons in Jamaica, African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar and the woman who inspired Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Margaret Garner. You can also hear pieces based in colonial India and in Nigeria by Wole Soyinka.
Celebrate Pegasus! is on Thursday 5 October at the Actors Church (St Paul’s) Covent Garden, Bedford Street, WC2E 9ED, beginning at 7.30 with a free reception following the concert.
Tickets are £20 from Eventbrite or call 020 7501 9501. Since Lloyd Newton passed away in January this year, Alison Buchanan has taken on the role of artistic director of Pegasus. She said Newton had fearlessly led the company for 25 years, presenting ground-breaking opera by black artists and that the company has exciting events coming up, locally, nationally and internationally.
