FREUDE: Davóne Tines

Described as "one of the most powerful voices of our time" (Los Angeles Times) and one that has "advanced the field of classical music" (The New York Times), Davóne Tines is a path-breaking artist at the intersection of many histories, cultures and aesthetics who tells deeply personal stories of perseverance and human connection. Davóne approaches his artistry in ways that are guided by a quest to answer the fundamental questions that motivate organizations to select and present particular art and the audiences that come to see and hear the artists who perform.
In 2019, Davóne was involved in both creation and performance, first in The Black Clown, a music-theater piece adapted from the Langston Hughes poem and created by Davóne, Michael Schachter, and Zack Winokur that premiered at Lincoln Center. He also starred in the premiere of jazz composer Terrence Blanchard and librettist Kasi Lemmons' opera Fire Shut Up In My Bones, a "bold and affecting" adaptation of NY Times and CNN journalist Charles Blow's wrenching memoir. (And Charles Blow's new book The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto just hit the shelves.)
In FREUDE you will see and hear beauty and longing, the very essence of Davóne. He conceived of and recorded this work in his childhood Baptist church in Orlean, Virginia, and in his words, it is "a mashup of different songs that I think have similar meaning." Using allusions to Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Lauryn Hill's rendition of "Joyful, Joyful," and the Black spiritual "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," Davóne is very pleased to welcome you into his world, and so are we.