Just 15 months ago, the Oakland Symphony presented the world premiere of Here I Stand, with music by Carlos Simon to a libretto by Dan Harder. The concert also featured Shostakovich’s defiant Fifth Symphony.

On the podium that Friday in February 2024, making his subscription concert debut, was Kedrick Armstrong. The audience cheered. The musicians raved. The Oakland Symphony had found its next Music Director.

And so here we are tonight, returning with Kedrick to Here I Stand along with Brahms’ lyrical Second Symphony. Tonight’s performance is being recorded for commercial release. To ensure the microphones capture only the performance, be sure to silence your cell phone and any other potentially disruptive electronic device. Then check again to make sure they will be silent. (Then maybe check just one more time.)

Last February, I wrote that the “work based on Paul Robeson’s Here I Stand, [is] his moral testament written at the dawn of the modern Civil Rights movement. In this piece we hear Robeson’s words and the feelings and actions they inspire. In the last century, Paul Robeson was a celebrated athlete. It is for his films and his singing, with his commanding bass-baritone, that Robeson is best remembered. And he was also a champion of justice for Black Americans at home. Deemed subversive, the State Department revoked his passport. Blacklisted at home, no longer free to earn, Robeson eventually published his testament, Here I Stand. Not a single mainstream newspaper would review it.”

Robeson’s words resound still. He holds our story in his voice. Hear that voice and be moved to act. What happened to him then should never happen to another American ever again.

Thank you for being a part of Kedrick’s spectacular Inaugural season concluding on June 13 with a performance of Errollyn Wallen’s Mighty River and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the “Ode to Joy.” Tickets are now on sale but if you subscribe to the recently announced 2025-26 season you can receive this June’s performance of Beethoven’s Ninth free.

This is the moment to declare yourself an Oakland Symphony subscriber and a supporter of all that your symphony stands for. Subscribing is your initial investment into the cultural fabric of this great and diverse community.

I thank you for attending tonight and look forward to welcoming you back on June 13.  

Warmly, 

Dr. Mieko Hatano
Chief Executive Officer

Oakland Symphony
presents
PAUL ROBESON: HERE I STAND
Friday, May 16, 2025  8pm
Paramount Theatre, Oakland

Kedrick Armstrong, Conductor
Morris Robinson, Bass
Oakland Symphony Chorus
Ash Walker, Chorus Director