Derrick Skye is So Hot Right Now: St. John's

Name: Derrick Skye is So Hot Right Now: St. John's
Start: 2025-11-25T19:00:00-05:00
Location: St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia)

Schedule

Tue, 25 Nov, 2025 at 07:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

St. John's Episcopal Church (Richmond, Virginia) | Richmond, VA

Part of Rosette's So Hot Right Now series, this is the last of SIX concerts during the month of November featuring the music of Derrick Skye! This is a FREE performance at 7pm in the Parish Hall of St. John's Church. Thank you to our concert sponsors, St. John’s Church, Crawley Joyner, and William Richter & Ryland Potter!
Rosette will be joined by double bassist Ayça Kartari for this performance, which will feature two works by Derrick Skye: "As I Heard When I Was Young" and "American Mirror, Parts I & II".
Derrick Skye lives in Los Angeles and is a Southern California native. He is known for his transcultural approach to music, integrating various musical practices from different cultures around the world into his work. His mission is to create music that transcends cultural boundaries and bridges diverse communities.
He holds degrees in composition from UCLA and California Institute of the Arts, and is a student (note the present tense) of West African drumming and dance, Persian classical music theory, tala in Hindustani classical music, Balkan music theory, and Balinese gamelan. He studies these seemingly disparate musical traditions, looking for overlaps and opportunities for fruitful collaboration.
"As I Heard When I Was Young" is inspired by the free a capella and instrumental stylings Derrick heard as a child growing up Black churches. He takes this gospel blues music and integrates it with melodic elements from Malian blues guitar music, Dagomba flute music of Northern Ghana, and the flute and percussion music of the Haha tribe of Morocco.
"American Mirror" reflects on the coming together of cultures in our society, which consists of many generations and descendants of refugees, immigrants, and slaves, and how intercultural collaborations are essential to the well-being of American society. Melodically, the piece draws from West African, North African, and Eastern European vocal techniques and ornamentations, in addition to modal scales. Underneath these melodies, American Mirror uses open harmonies commonly found in Appalachian folk music, and also includes drones, an accompaniment practice found in many musical cultures, notably, Indian classical music.
Learn more about Rosette's So Hot Right Now series here: https://firstcreatures.com/so-hot-right-now
We need to raise $3400 by Nov. 30th in order to fund this series! Help us reach our goal with a tax-deductible donation here: https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/fir.../campaigns/7395