Carol Evans, her husband Leslie Burrs and their daughter Aryssa Leigh Burrs will combine their musical talents to present ‘The Bamboo Man and the Drinking Gourd’ at Shavertown United Methodist Church, where Carol Evans’ sister, Nancy, is music director.
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Concert set for June 22 at Shavertown UM Church
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When Shavertown United Methodist Church opens its doors for “The Bamboo Man and the Drinking Gourd,” a free concert in celebration of Juneteenth, on Saturday, June 22, there are two groups of people music director Nancy Evans hopes will be in the audience.
One group would be those who know all about Juneteenth, and perhaps have been celebrating it for years.
The other group would be those for whom this holiday, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States, is a new experience.
In short, Evans hopes to see everyone there — enjoying the music of hand-made African-style flutes, joining in the call-and-response of African music and hearing American-style Gospel tunes as well as the spirituals that often held coded messages on how to escape slavery.
“There were hidden codes in spirituals,” said Carol Evans, a Dallas native and sister of Nancy Evans, who will present the show with her husband, flautist and composer of operas Leslie Burrs, and daughter, professional opera singer Aryssa Leigh Burrs.
“Follow the drinking gourd” was a reference to the Big Dipper, Carol Evans said, explaining that looking up to the heavens was a way for people escaping slavery to make sure they were heading in the right direction — North.
“Another song, ‘Wade in the Water,’ meant they were supposed to walk through creeks and rivers,” Carol Evans said, explaining that way, if anyone was chasing them with dogs, the dogs likely would lose the scent.
The program will have a lot of variety, Carol Evans said, and should be pleasing to both young and old.
“I’ve wanted to bring it up here for a while,” said Nancy Evans, the local music director.
With her sister, brother-in-law and niece all being performers, it wasn’t easy to find a day they were all free. But finally they found one, conveniently close to Juneteenth, which is officially celebrated on Wednesday, June 19.
“We put this program together three or four years ago and we presented it at libraries in the Philadelphia area,” Carol Evans said, noting that is where she and her husband live while their daughter is based in Washington, D.C.
The musical family includes Aryssa Leigh Burrs, who is a teacher of music as well as a professional mezzo soprano, and her mom Carol Evans, who is an associate professor of music and conductor at Gwynedd Mercy University, and who has been nominated for a Grammy Music Educator Award.
Husband and father Leslie Burrs, who has crafted many of the flutes he will bring to the local show, is the composer of the award-winning opera “Vanqui,” which tells of an African princess brought to America and sold on the slave block. Vanqui and her husband are separated and murdered but then are “resurrected as spirits who ride the wind searching for each other and for the Baobab tree” while encountering such famous freedom fighters as Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass and John Brown.
More recently, Burrs composed the opera “I Can’t Breathe,” which Carol Evans described as “loosely based on the George Floyd story.”
The local concert is presented by the Fine Arts Committee at Shavertown United Methodist Church. It will begin at 7 p.m. June 22 and will be followed by a reception. Admission is free, but donations will be accepted.