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Carlos Simon

Together

Decca Classics
Release Date: September 8, 2023

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1 Prayer (Gather Up).  
2 Love Is Stronger Than Pride  
3 Amazing Grace  
4 Near the Cross  
5 Loop  
6 Memory of Summer  
7 Warmth from Other Suns Settle  
8 Angels in Heaven  
9 Traveling Song  
10 Between Worlds  
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GRAMMY-nominated composer Carlos Simon will release his new album Together on September 8 globally via Decca Classics. The 10-track project collates and celebrates the multifaceted layers of Simon’s personality, upbringing, and musical understanding, with a creative process that strikes the balance of original compositions, improvisations, and carefully crafted arrangements. In addition to performing on a number of tracks, Simon has enlisted violinist and fellow Decca recording artist Randall Goosby, 2 x GRAMMY Award-winning mezzo J’Nai Bridges (“the ‘Beyoncé of opera” - BET), acclaimed GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Will Liverman and GRAMMY-nominated rising star cellist Seth Parker Woods. The album also features contributions from the Carlos Simon Collective, a group that Simon founded and conducted. Made up of Chicago’s best freelance artists, the collective is headed up by fellow GRAMMY-nominated, acclaimed composer, violinist, educator and friend Jessie Montgomery.

Arriving today is the brand new single Near the Cross featuring J’Nai Bridges. A hymn originally written by Fanny Crosby in 1869,xi is Simon’s favorite piece on the album. Growing up, Simon spent many Sundays performing the song on piano at the church in Atlanta where his father was a pastor.

Simon on the album: Together is a record that is truly representative of my musical life right now, one of collaboration, improvisation and pure music-making. Many know me as a composer, and during this recording process, it became so clear to me how special it was to be a performer, a conductor and a vessel of my compositions and arrangements alongside my peers. Some of the tracks are interpretations of my favorite works – particularly Near the Cross – and other tracks are simply my takes on favorites from my closest family and friends. Working on this album with the team in Chicago, as well as in New York, has been the truest labor and demonstration of togetherness – something I hope motivates and encourages.”

  • Carlos Simon chats about 'Requiem for the Enslaved' with 107.5WRUU - Savannah GA
    Posted At: November 9, 2022 12:00 AM
    Decca is proud of their signing of US composer Carlos Simon and the release of his new album Requiem for the Enslaved. The title work sees Simon infuse the traditional Catholic requiem with music from African American spirituals to create a haunting piece for chamber ensemble and spoken word.The album’s central piece, Requiem for the Enslaved, with text by Marco Pavé, was commissioned by Georgetown Universi...
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  • Carlos Simons 'Requiem for the Enslaved' honors the memory of enslaved people / Classical 101 - WOSU
    Posted At: August 15, 2022 12:00 AM
    Classical 101 - WOSU's Jennifer Hambrick writes….In 1838, Maryland Jesuits agreed to sell 272 enslaved people from Maryland plantations to plantations in Louisiana. The Jesuits made the sale in part to raise financial resources to help support their educational institutions, including Georgetown College, later renamed Georgetown University.Georgetown’s role in the 1838 Jesuit Slave Sale was the impetus for ...
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  • Carlos Simon's new work addresses a troubled history for a nation and a university / capradio
    Posted At: July 22, 2022 12:00 AM
    capradio's Jennifer Reason writes…..In 1838, Georgetown University was facing bankruptcy. Their solution? To raise funds by selling 272 enslaved men, women and children of African descent to sugarcane plantations in Louisiana. Composer Carlos Simon is setting out to shed light on this abhorrent event with a new work called, “Requiem for the Enslaved.”Simon is the composer in residence for the Kennedy Center...
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  • Carlos Simon's 'Requiem for the Enslaved' confronts Georgetown University's troubled past / NPR
    Posted At: June 17, 2022 12:00 AM
    Composer Carlos Simon's Requiem for the Enslaved, commissioned by Georgetown University, is a reckoning with the school's troubled history.Heard on All Things Considered, NPR's Tom Huizenga writes…Carlos Simon is a young composer on the rise, with an ear for social justice. His best known work so far, Elegy, is a string quartet in honor of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Next year, a large-sc...
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  • Carlos Simon releases: 'Requiem for the Enslaved' in time for Juneteenth / Classical 91.5WXXI
    Posted At: June 17, 2022 12:00 AM
    Decca's signing of US composer Carlos Simon and the release of his new album Requiem for the Enslaved, sees Simon infuse the traditional Catholic requiem with music from African American spirituals to create a haunting piece for chamber ensemble and spoken word.The album’s central piece, Requiem for the Enslaved, with text by Marco Pavé, was commissioned by Georgetown University, where Simon is currently As...
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  • Georgetown music professor releases: Requiem for the Enslaved for Juneteenth / WTOP
    Posted At: June 16, 2022 12:00 AM
    WTOP's Jason Fraley writes….In 2017, Georgetown University formally apologized for participating in the slave trade. This Friday, University music professor and Kennedy Center resident artist Carlos Simon drops his streaming album “Requiem for the Enslaved” ahead of Juneteenth. “The piece is dedicated to these men and women who were sold as property by the Jesuits who founded Georgetown University,” Simon t...
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