The Music

The world premiere of Donald Sur's Slavery Documents on March 23, 1990 was a major musical, cultural and cross-cultural event that brought together an exceptionally diverse, near-capacity crowd, the likes of which Boston's venerable Symphony Hall had rarely seen in its audiences.

State Representative Byron Rushing, Richard Dyer and John Koch of the Boston Globe, and Peter Catalano of the national publication Musical America praised the Cantata Singers for assembling a racially integrated audience -- and encouraged the organization to work to keep that audience.

For the premiere, the group expanded its performing forces to include 80 singers, half of whom were African American; a 70-member orchestra; and five soloists, three of them African American, in order to dramatically fulfill the roles as written.