Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra

04/09/2026

A glimpse of Friday’s sold out concert for ’s ! 🎻 🎶

📸: Daniel Jackson () / Embassy: Interactive ()

04/04/2026

Black Pearl is proud to welcome Jaman E. Dunn-Danger as our newly appointed Associate Conductor!

Jaman () is a multidisciplinary orchestral conductor, vocalist, and instrumentalist. A Chicago native, they served as Assistant Conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 2018 to 2022, have guest conducted for the Dance Theater of Harlem, and are the Co-founder and Music Director of the Washington DC-based Polaris Orchestra. They hold a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and currently direct the UB Symphony Orchestra, lead the Buffalo Master Chorale as Artistic Director, and maintain an active vocal career as a baritone.

Last night at the , Jaman led Black Pearl’s performance of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis to a sold out audience. Today at 2:00 PM, they do it again at - come join us!

04/03/2026

Mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams joins conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson and the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra for a powerful performance of Julia Perry's Stabat Mater tonight at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

03/31/2026

Our founder and music director Jeri Lynne Johnson sat down with Loki Karuna on the TRILLOQUY podcast to talk about her path as a conductor, the origins of Black Pearl, and the upcoming Gateways Music Festival collaboration with Dance Theatre of Harlem. Give it a listen!

03/31/2026

: Cellist and composer is a Nigerian-American-Cherokee performing artist based here in the Philadelphia-area. He received his Cello Performance degree from Temple University’s and is a recipient of the 30 Under 30 award for 2024.

His Six Suites for Solo Cello took six years to write, finishing in 2023, exactly three hundred years after the only other set in existence: Bach’s. Each suite fuses baroque counterpoint with jazz, Latin dance, and elements of his Nigerian and Native American heritage. He regularly writes and premieres original compositions, and has been commissioned several times.

On April 3 and 4 with Black Pearl, Ajibola performs the Prelude from his Cello Suite No. 4 in A minor. The suite’s theme is “Mourning,” drawing on stories and legends from his Native American lineage, moving from beauty to tragedy. In his words, “This Prelude cannot bring back our ancestors or the world they knew, but it can hopefully help us honor and remember them.”

03/30/2026

03/26/2026

: American mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams () has sung on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Salzburg Festival, and the Canadian Opera Company. Chicago Classical has praised her “powerful, honeyed tone, the registers fluently joined from bottom to top and with flawless runs.” This season she sang Neris in Medea alongside Sondra Radvanovsky at Lyric, appeared in the world premiere of Billy Corgan’s A Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness, and just this week performed the title role of Carmen with Piedmont Opera.

In October 2024, Zoie performed Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic as part of Solange Knowles’ Eldorado Ballroom series, conducted by our own . She performed it again with the Houston Symphony, once more with Maestro Johnson on the podium.

Fresh off Carmen, she joins Black Pearl for Stabat Mater on April 3 at the Barnes Foundation and April 4 at Salem Baptist Church of Abington. Head to the link in our bio for details!

03/23/2026

We’re looking forward to sharing this program at Salem Baptist Church of Abington on Saturday, April 4 at 2:00 PM. With music by Julia Perry, Ajibola Rivers, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the afternoon is shaped by mourning, reflection, and hope. Admission is free and open to all.

Details: https://www.blackpearlco.org/event-details-registration/black-pearl-celebrates-easter-at-salem-baptist-church

03/20/2026

We are two weeks away from our return to at The Barnes Foundation!

📅 Friday, April 3 | 6–9pm
📍 The Barnes Foundation
🎶 Performances: 7pm & 7:45pm
💬 Conversation + Q&A: 7:30pm
🎟️ Use code: BARNESFF for $10 tickets ➡️ https://bit.ly/4lj4cJv

03/16/2026

: Julia Perry (1924-1979)

Ahead of our performances of "Stabat Mater" on April 3 & 4, learn more about Julia Perry, a groundbreaking Black woman composer whose work is experiencing a rightful rediscovery.

Born in Lexington, KY, in 1924 and raised in Akron, OH, Perry studied voice, piano, and composition at Westminster Choir College, trained at Juilliard, and spent the summer of 1951 at Tanglewood studying with Luigi Dallapiccola. She went on to continue her studies in Florence and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She later returned to the US to teach, while building a body of work that blended 20th-century European techniques with the idioms of her Black American heritage. In 1965, her "Study for Orchestra" became the first work by a Black woman performed by the NY Philharmonic.

Composed in 1951, "Stabat Mater" was Perry’s first major work and the piece that launched her career. Dedicated to her mother, it sets a 13th-century Latin hymn meditating on Mary’s sorrow at the Crucifixion for solo contralto and string orchestra. Perry said the work “consists of three characters,” Jesus, Mary, and the spectator. Perry’s writing gives the work both intimacy and force.

12/02/2025

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