"Movable Type": A Tribute to Langston Hughes, Featuring the New York Premiere of "Five By Langston," by Ricky Ian Gordon

The Dessoff Choirs’ Mid-Winter Festival, WORD•PLAY, under the direction of Music Director, Christopher Shepard, opens on Tuesday, January 15 with a choral performance that showcases the myriad ways choral composers rise to the challenge of setting text. The concert – Movable Type - will be held at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with a pre-concert discussion between Christopher Shepard and composer Ricky Ian Gordon beginning at 7:00 pm.

Five By Langston, a setting of five poems by Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, will be performed in the venue that bears the poet’s name, The Langston Hughes Auditorium.

Dessoff’s second Mid-Winter festival will be presented in venues around New York City from January 15 through March 16, 2013. The festival features a variety of events that explore the dynamic relationship between text and music.