Professor David Berry to join historic orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall

Editor’s Note: This article, originally a preview, has been updated with new information for readers to access the audio recording.

Pianist David Berry, professor of music at Eastern Mennonite University and incoming artistic director of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, will join as a member of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra for its historic house debut at Carnegie Hall on Sunday, April 24. The orchestra is comprised entirely of professional classical musicians of African descent.

Hear the orchestra’s Carnegie debut when it airs live worldwide in the “Carnegie Hall Live” series at 3 pm ET this Sunday on wqxr.org. The recording of the concert will be available at the same website.

Gateways also posts interviews, shorts, and concert excerpts on their Youtube channel.

Berry also performed in a concert with the Harlem Chamber Players at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture.

He was a member of the festival’s artistic planning committee. The event is hosted by Berry’s undergraduate alma mater Eastman School of Music and celebrates the contributions of musicians of African descent to classical music, and features over 120 players from major American orchestras and university faculties. 

Sunday at Carnegie Hall

Led by acclaimed conductor Anthony Parnther, Sunday’s program showcases the world premiere of I Can, a new Gateways commission from 2021-22 “Perspectives” artist Jon Batiste. The Oscar- and five-time Grammy-winning composer, performing artist, bandleader and cultural ambassador who serves as music director of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Batiste joins the orchestra as piano soloist in his own new work.

Batiste was a classmate of Berry’s at The Juilliard School. Berry earned his master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School. 

Gateways’s program combines Batiste’s new work with Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Florence Price’s Third Symphony and Sinfonia No. 3 by George Walker, the first African American laureate of the Pulitzer Prize for Music, whose centennial falls this year.