An Interview with Shavon Lloyd

Florence Price Commission Competition Winner

As we near our 2024/25 Season premiere concert, I, TOO, SING AMERICA, we caught up with featured guest artist and most recent winner of our Florence Price Commission Competition, Shavon Lloyd, to learn more about what to expect from the October 20, 2024 concert. (FIND TICKETS)

Shavon Lloyd is an award-winning composer, baritone, conductor, and music educator. He won his first composition contest at the age of 17 by the Manhattan Choral Ensemble and hasn't stopped since.

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WMC: What are you most excited about this concert?
Shavon: This concert focuses on music of contemporary composers in choral music from underrepresented and marginalized groups. Especially in choral music we have such a diverse array of culture and representation through the art and what’s exciting about that is that we tend to break the mold of expectation through the repertoire and stories that haven’t been told. And talking to Thomas (Colohan), the repertoire for this concert is fresh and vibrant and that’s the direction choral music needs to go! 

WMC: Tell us a bit more about your commissioned piece.
Shavon: My piece is inspired by Harlem Renaissance poet Jean Toomer's poem,  Tell Me. In the poem, Toomer uses vivid language and imagery to convey emotions and ideas, focusing on themes of longing, spirituality, and the struggle for self-understanding. With Toomer being a writer during the Harlem Renaissance, this poem fits into the broader context of the Renaissance, where writers and artists were exploring new forms of expression to articulate the Black experience in a society marked by racial divisions. In this text, we see Toomer look to the natural world for reassurance that his emotions and desires are not only real, but also reciprocated or acknowledged by the universe. This quest for validation starts as inquisitive, then becomes more desperate as the text evolves into more specificity. This piece is inspired by the complexity of language and emotion used in this poem. Along with implications of yearning, discontent, and uncertainty, there is a hopefulness and an optimism that lives at the center of this text. The oboe and its enchanting timbre align with the emotional shifts of the speaker and embodies the mystery of the natural world he speaks to.

WMC: Classical choral concerts are often filled with a majority white audience. Do you mind talking a bit about how this affects you as an artist?
Shavon: Being the only Black person in the room isn’t new to me. At the conservatory I attended, there were maybe eight to ten Black students total, and that often made me question, 'Am I a good musician? Or am I a good musician who happens to be Black?' The feeling of being tokenized—being the only one who looks like you in a space where others don’t—has been challenging. How do we change that? The struggle is that, without opportunities, we can’t. But when those opportunities come, especially as a Black artist performing for a predominantly white audience, it's both exciting and important.

I'd love to see a world where diversity is so normal that it doesn't need to be advertised or pointed out. What excites me about this concert is that it proves the repertoire exists. We don’t need to include a token Black composer just for diversity's sake. No, there’s a wealth of beautiful music by Black composers, especially those who are alive and creating right now, and that's what makes this concert so special. It shows that choral music has the power to reflect a wide range of voices, and I applaud WMC for giving this repertoire a platform. The next step is to make this the norm across the genre.

WMC: Who do you hope comes to this show?
Shavon: I hope to see open-minded people in the audience—people who love singing, music, and choral art. This concert is for everyone, from veteran choral-goers to newcomers. I especially encourage fans of the Classics to come and experience what today’s composers are contributing to the art form. Tradition is beautiful, but it also lays the foundation for innovation and progression. Without both, music can quickly become stagnant. This concert is perfect for anyone excited to hear great singing and discover fresh, vibrant repertoire. It’s for those who have high expectations and are ready to experience something new and powerful.

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