This concert is part of the Sound Out Leeds 2023/24 series.

Samantha Ege – piano

Castle of Our Skins – string quartet

Undine Smith Moore Soweto

Bongani Ndodana Breen Safika: Three Tales of African Migration

Lavell Blackwell On the Impulse to Move for string quartet (UK premiere)

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Piano Quintet

Castle of Our Skins is a Boston-based group that celebrates Black artistry through music. It explores Black heritage and culture, shining a light on both lesser-known and famous figures from the past and present.

For its anticipated Leeds debut, the quartet is joined by sought-after pianist and musicologist, Samantha Ege, to showcase piano trios and piano quintets by three Black composers from Africa and the diaspora.

Two powerful compositions by Undine Smith Moore and Bongani Ndodana Breen respond to the distressing history of apartheid, a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and Namibia between 1940s – 1990s, followed by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Piano Quintet, first performed in London in 1893 with the eighteen year old composer at the piano.

Join these five musicians for an evening of boundary-defying spiritual storytelling that will leave you with a sense of fortitude and hope.