Jennifer Koh

The New York Times
By William Robin
July 22, 2018
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When Orchestras Turn Activist

In 2014, as the Black Lives Matter movement swelled to national attention following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the clarinetist and music teacher Eun Lee decided that it was time for her community to act. “As we were seeing a response from rap musicians and folk musicians and now more and more pop musicians, there was no such response from the classical music community,” she told The New York Times in 2016.

So Ms. Lee organized the Dream Unfinished, a symphonic benefit concert that raised money for civil rights organizations. Since then, the Dream Unfinished, which bills itself as an “activist orchestra,” has continued to address issues that are more overtly political than those the classical music world typically highlights.

This year, its focus is immigrant rights, and its Sanctuary Festival will conclude with a concert at Manhattan’s Saint Peter’s Church on July 27. Teaming up with the new-music ensemble Contemporaneous as well as the pianist-composer Vijay Iyer and the violinist Jennifer Koh, the Dream Unfinished will present music by composers who identify with their immigrant roots, including George Walker, Tania León and Huang Ruo. WILLIAM ROBIN

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