The musicians of the African American Composer Initiative will present their 15th annual concerts celebrating the music of African American composers, living and historical. Entitled “Hold Out for Joy: Music of Resilience and Hope by African American Composers” the concerts take place on Saturday, January 31 and Sunday, February 1, 2026 at 3 pm, Eastside College Preparatory School, 1041 Myrtle St., East Palo Alto, CA. Ticket proceeds benefit this outstanding all-scholarship school, now celebrating its 30th year.
The music on the 2026 program promises to be as relevant and sustaining today as it was in times past: spirituals, vocal and instrumental concert music, jazz, and pop by William Grant Still, Harry Burleigh, Betty Jackson King, Undine Smith Moore, Zenobia Powell Perry, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Valerie Capers, Regina Baiocchi, Joshua McGhee, and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Performers are soprano Yolanda Rhodes, tenor Othello Jefferson, pianists/vocalists LaDoris Cordell and Deanne Tucker, vocalist Mikayla Dones, pianists Josephine Gandolfi and Jansen Verplank, cellist Victoria Ehrlich, violist Paul Ehrlich, bass clarinetist Carol Somersille, trumpeter John Worley, alto saxophonist Oscar Pangilinan, tenor saxophonist Tod Dickow, bassist Charlie Channel, and percussionist Jim Kassis.