Nicole Mitchell: Harriet Tubman - Flight to Freedom

Creative flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell performed her new orchestra work with the Chicago Composers Orchestra on December 7th, 2011, at Garfield Park Conservatory. With Flight for Freedom for Creative Flute and Orchestra, Mitchell straddles contemporary classical music, jazz and creative music in ways she has never done before. The Chicago Composers Orchestra is in its first season, founded by Randall West to feature new music by living composers. The concert will be free to the public and will also include music by Lou Mallozzi, John Dorhauer, Francisco Castillo Trigueros and Kyle Vegter. From Mitchell's composer notes: “Designed to feature a flute soloist, Flight for Freedom celebrates Harriet Tubman, one of America's greatest heros, through the musical illustration of her courage, hardship, vision and creativity while illuminating one of the most volatile periods of American history. A predecessor of Dr. Martin Luther King and his commitment to social justice, Tubman was a champion for human rights through her work in the Underground Railroad and the Civil War. In the work, I draw connections between African American cultural expression and the orchestra by weaving jazz aesthetics, improvisation and classical music. Flight for Freedom is intended to be a multi-movement soundtrack of Harriet Tubman's struggle. While writing the piece I envisioned Tubman fearlessly and illusively functioning within the evils of slavery to help others escape, and the intensity of the times in which she lived. Born a slave in 1820, Tubman escaped to freedom in Canada as a youth, but her conscience taunted her to return on countless successful expeditions to rescue hundreds of people trapped in slavery. Later, Tubman worked for the Union in the Civil War as America's first woman to lead a military operation, and also as nurse and a spy. A true improviser of her lifetime, Tubman repeatedly and courageously risked her life and faced the unknown out of her love for humanity."