Following a trip to Ghana’s Cape Coast Castle, composer Joyce Solomon Moorman wrote a symphony in two parts. The first marks the arrival of enslaved people to the castle’s famed “door of no return,” and the second represents ancestors coming back centuries later through the “door of return.” The Afro-American Chamber Music Society performed it ahead of Juneteenth at the Grant AME Church in Crenshaw, and Moorman talks to KCRW about her inspiration.
Using music to tell the origin story of African Americans
The Afro-American Chamber Music Society performs “The Cape Coast Castle Symphony” on June 11 at the Grant AME Church in Crenshaw. Photo by Giuliana Mayo.