Connected to music
Thursday, May 6, 2010
by Ryanne Persinger
The Charlotte Post

Hearing the story of Harriet Jacobs inspired Ted Gellar-Goad to compose music to her “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.”

The title is from Jacobs’ autobiography. She was born a slave in Edenton, N.C., in 1813. She died in 1897.

The work is one of several pieces that will be performed during the Charlotte Symphony’s Youth Orchestra reunion at 3:30 p.m. May 16 at Halton Theater at Central Piedmont Community College, 1206 Elizabeth Ave.

Gellar-Goad wrote the piece while studying a literature course in college.

“I was reading through it and I was impressed by it,” said Gellar-Goad, who once played the violin and horn with the CSYO.

With a grant funded in part by North Carolina State University, Gellar-Goad, a Northwest School of the Arts graduate, composed the piece in a year.  There are five movements to the composition. It is scored for both an orchestra and a narrator. The narrator is Jessica McJunkins.

The first movement is the introduction or Jacobs’ testimony, followed by “Never Wished for Freedom,” with the third movement being the interlude for listeners to process what Jacobs has written.

The fourth is when Jacobs gets her freedom and the fifth is about a fair white child and the other a slave, whom are sisters.

“The white girl has a happy life and the black one has a tortured life,” Gellar-Goad says using Jacobs’ words. “The black sister drinks a cup of sin and shame, and misery, whereof her persecuted race are compelled to drink.”

Gellar-Goad says that is when he heard the music going through his head.

The CSYO is teaming up with the Connections Underground Railroad Project.

Before the concert on May 16, there will be activities on Saturday.

On May 15 there will be a Hidden Freedom Festival from noon to 4 p.m. The festival includes face painting, storytelling, games, music and the Symphony Guild of Charlotte Musical Petting Zoo.

Then from 4-5:30 p.m. there will be the presentation of “Toward A Life of Liberty: Chronicling the Paths from Slavery to Freedom,” at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 3200 Park Road.

During the 4 p.m. program, the youths involved in Connections will present an interpretation of freedom, sacrifice and courage.

They will discuss Jacobs and other freedom fighters.

Gellar-Goad will be present as well as professors from the UNC Charlotte Department of English.

Jay Ferguson, and his wife Reneisha Black Ferguson, started the Connections program. It brings together a diverse group of 45 seventh through tenth graders to enhance their leadership skills. It represents 19 public, five private and two charter and middle and high schools in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Catawba and Gaston counties. 

“(The whole idea behind the Connections) program is that we take the stories of the Underground Railroad so young people can get familiar with it,” Jay Ferguson said. “Then we encourage them to make the lessons relevant in their own lives through the struggles, sacrifices and of the leaders of the Underground Railroad movement.”

Ferguson said it’s not an historical program but rather a leadership one. The teen leaders meet monthly and go to historical sites.

It runs from September through July.

The events for the May 15 performance are free, however the concert May 16 is $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and students.