Feb 2, 2021 12:00 pm - Feb 28, 2021 12:00 pm

Dalanie Harris is a double bassist and podcaster from Los Angeles, CA. She began her musical studies with piano at age 7, and later switched to double bass at age 12. She has played in orchestras all over Los Angeles, including the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. Her accolades include winning first prize in the 2014 NAACP Act-So Regional Competition, and second place in the 2015 NANM Young Artists Competition. After graduating from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Harris went on to study with double bass virtuoso James VanDemark at the Eastman School of Music. In November 2018, along with friend and fellow Eastman student Katie Brown, Harris co-founded Classically Black Podcast, which brings listeners into the world of classical music through the eyes of the cohosts: two Black classical musicians on the rise looking to share their perspective with a new and interesting twist. As a duo, Harris and Brown have hosted and presented at conferences promoting equity and inclusion for Black musicians across the country. 

Katie Brown is a violist hailing from Evanston, IL. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where she studied Viola Performance and Music Education. She studied viola with George Taylor. Katie received her degree in Music Education from Illinois State University where she studied viola with Dr. Katherine Lewis.

Katie has performed, given lectures, and lecture recitals in cities around the world including Wellington, Seoul, Nashville, and Salt Lake City. An advocate for access to quality music education for aspiring musicians of all backgrounds, Katie teaches in the El Sistema inspired programs RocMusic and Bravo Buddies.

Aside from playing and teaching, Katie is co-host of Classically Black Podcast, a classical music podcast that discusses classical music from the Black perspective. Katie is currently a fellow with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

M Lamar is a composer who works across opera, metal, performance, video, sculpture, and installation to craft sprawling narratives of radical becomings. Lamar holds a BFA from The San Francisco Art Institute and attended the Yale School of Art, sculpture program, before dropping out to pursue music. Lamar’s work has been presented internationally, most recently at Wellcome Collection London, The Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Funkhaus Berlin Germany, Kunstgebäude Stuttgart, The Meet Factory in Prague, National Sawdust New York, The Kitchen New York, MoMa PS1’s Greater New York, Merkin Hall, New York, Issue Project Room New York, The Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco; Human resources, Los Angeles;Wesleyan University; Participant Inc., New York; New Museum, New York; Södra Teatern, Stockholm; Warehouse9, Copenhagen; WWDIS Fest, Gothenburg and Stockholm; The International Theater Festival, Donzdorf, Germany; Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York; Performance Space 122, New York; and African American Art & Culture Complex, San Francisco; among others. 

Mr. Lamar continues to study classical and bel canto technique with Ira Siff, and is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund Grant for New Music (JFund), a 2016 NYFA Fellowship in Music and Sound and grants from Material Vodka 2016, the Rema Hort Mann Foundation (2015), Harpo Foundation (2014-2015), and Franklin Furnace Fund (2013–14). 

Classically Black Podcast shows listeners the world of classical music through the eyes of Dalanie and Katie: two Black classical musicians on the rise looking to share their perspective with a new and interesting twist. Classically Black Podcast centers Black voices and challenges ideas of what the field of classical music looks like. Additionally, by including humor and references to popular culture, the hosts aim to make classical music more approachable to listeners who are not classically trained. At its core, Classically Black Podcast was created with the purpose of showing Black musicians that even in an industry that so clearly lacks diversity, they are visible and their voices matter.

New episode out every Monday, wherever you listen to podcasts!

Jarvis Antonio Green is the Founding Artistic Director of JAG Productions, a Vermont and NYC based black theater company founded in 2016. He is the recipient of the New England Theatre Conference Regional Award for Outstanding Achievement in the American Theatre for his work with JAG in its inaugural year. Every year he produces five new plays, nurturing the work of five budding playwrights at JAGfest, one of the nation’s leading incubators of new works by Black playwrights. In 2020 he launched the Black Joy Project, a three-tiered project: a Black Theatre methodology, a play embodying the method and a documentary film capturing its inception. Jarvis was acknowledged by Native Son as a Black queer man who impacted the world in 2020 and sees himself playing a key role in bringing actors and stories from all over the diaspora to stages worldwide. He has a robust artistic resume having directed and performed in numerous professional productions all over the country. As an educator and scholar, he created a Black Theatre curriculum for Northwestern University, Notre Dame, and Northern Vermont University. Green is a New England Foundation for the Arts National Theatre Project Advisor and is a founding member of the Black Theatre Artist Council at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York.

A proud native of Memphis, TN, Garrett McQueen’s bassoon playing has been heard across the country and around the world since 1999. As well as performing as a member of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, he has worked with groups including the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Louisville Orchestra. Alongside performing, Garrett has spoken on diversity panels presented by the Gateways Music Festival, the Sphinx Organization and the Kennedy Center’s Shift Festival, which led to his being named one of America’s “most interesting classical musicians” by author Cesare Civetta, and “a black talent that you may not know, but should” by Current. A year after joining the team at WUOT-FM in Knoxville, Garrett was recruited by American Public Media in Saint Paul, MN, where he now works as host/producer of the nationally-syndicated radio show, “Music Through the Night”, and the podcast, “TRILLOQUY”.

Damien Sneed is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer, producer, arranger, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. Sneed has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends including the late Aretha Franklin, Wynton Marsalis, Jessye Norman, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, Lawrence Brownlee, and many others. The multi-genre recording artist is a recipient of the prestigious Sphinx Medal of Excellence, which is presented annually to emerging Black and Latino leaders in classical music.

Sneed is the founder and artistic director of Chorale Le Chateau, which has gained a global reputation for its vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance period pieces to art songs to jazz, spirituals, gospel, and avant-garde contemporary music. He is featured on the recording of Wynton Marsalis’ Abyssinian Mass as a conductor, with Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and Chorale Le Chateau.

Sneed joined the acclaimed staff of the Houston Grand Opera (HGOco) as Music Director and Composer in Residence and served as cover conductor for HGO mainstage productions under Patrick Summers, Artistic and Music Director for the 2018 – 2019 season. He has been commissioned to compose a new chamber opera called MARIAN’S SONG about the life of Marian Anderson for Houston Grand Opera which will have its world premiere on March 5, 2020, at the Cullen Theater.