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Anthony Davis's You Have the Right to Remain Silent Performed in Boston and Detroit

Mar. 29, 2023

Thomas Wilkins led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in performances of Anthony Davis's You Have the Right to Remain Silent on March 9-11 at Symphony Hall in Boston, featuring clarinetist Anthony McGill as the soloist. Anthony McGill also performed as soloist for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's performances of the work on March 3-4 at Orchestra Hall.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent was inspired by an experience that the composer had in the 1970s. Anthony Davis was driving to Boston to attend a concert when he was stopped by a police officer. Davis notes, "He had turned on his siren and stopped my car. I was about to get out and ask him what was going on and that I didn't want to be late for my concert," Davis recalls. "But when my wife turned around, she told me to stay seated because the police officer was already pointing his gun at me." It later emerged that Davis had been mistaken for a bank robber. The piece begins with the lonely voice of the clarinet which is interrogated by the orchestra. Davis explores the emotional consequences of such a confrontation as the piece progresses, probing what happens to people who have to deal with the loss of their freedom, their family members, their community or their lives.


You Have the Right to Remain Silent: II. Loss/Anthony Davis/Boston Modern Orchestra Project/
J.D. Parran, clarinet/Earl Howard, Kurzweil synthesizer/Gil Rose, conductor

To learn more about Anthony Davis, visit: schott-music.com.

Anthony Davis
You Have the Right to Remain Silent (2011)
Concerto for clarinet, Kurzweil synthesizer, and ensemble in four movements
1.1.1.1-1.1.1.0-2perc(I: drum set; II: vib, mar; 4timp[shared by I. & II.])-hp-str
25'

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