Clarinetist Anthony McGill to join live ‘Meeting the Moment’ Feb. 23

In the fifth episode of the Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State’s “Meeting the Moment with Michael Mwenso” livestream, the performance artist-historian will talk with clarinetist Anthony McGill, the New York Philharmonic’s first African-American principal player.

The free online event, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 23, will be broadcast via the Zoom conference app. Questions will be taken in real time from audience members via the chat function.

Find more information about “Meeting the Moment” episode five. 

Contributions from the members of the Center for the Performing Arts and a grant from the University Park Student Fee Board help make the program free of charge. Meghan R. Mason Program Endowment and Richard Robert Brown Program Endowment provide support.

The program is part of the center’s “Up Close and Virtual” 2020–21season. “Meeting the Moment” also is the keystone event of the Fierce Urgency Festival, the center’s commitment to celebrating Black artists and sharing their stories. Learn more about the festival. 

In response to the death of George Floyd in May and the unrest afterward, McGill posted to Facebook a version of “America the Beautiful.” In an interview with NPR, he shared his logic on playing the “wrong” minor notes and his #TakeTwoKnees message in the struggle for justice and decency.

“Sometimes life is minor. It goes off its true melody. It goes off of that simple, beautiful melody that we all expect it to be” he said. “America has given me more opportunity and more gifts than any place I could ever imagine living. And yet, the melody can go off, and we need to acknowledge that we can hear it. We can’t pretend like it hasn’t turned to something darker.”

Watch McGill perform “America the Beautiful.” 

Mwenso performed for the Center for the Performing Arts recently with The Shakes in a virtual concert. As curator and events programmer at Jazz at Lincoln Center, he has shared the stage with Cécile McLorin Salvant, Jon Batiste, Aaron Diehl, Sullivan Fortner and Jamison Ross.

Geisinger and Northwest provide support for virtual presentations by the Center for the Performing Arts.

Find more information about forthcoming “Up Close and Virtual” season events.