D-Composed presents the new concert ROBESOИ

Chicago’s revered Black chamber music collective D-Composed makes its Harris Theater debut in collaboration with acclaimed bass-baritone, Davóne Tines and his band THE TRUTH (bassist Khari Lucas and pianist John Bitoy) for a one-night-only Chicago Premiere of ROBESOИ. Created by Tines and director Zack Winokur, ROBESOИ is a daring concert that tells the story of influential singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson via his vast musical repertoire across gospel, classical, Broadway, and folk music. The Chicago-exclusive version of ROBESOИ will feature D-Composed performing alongside Tines and THE TRUTH in new arrangements by Chicago composer Ahmed Al Abaca.

Moving from the stage of Carnegie Hall to Robeson’s House Un-American Activities Committee interrogation, and from the suicide attempt in a Moscow hotel room to shock treatments that followed, the work attempts to understand an icon, not through aspiring to his monumentality, but through connecting to his vulnerability. Born in 1898 in New Jersey, Paul Robeson was not only an internationally renowned bass-baritone but powerful advocate for the rights of Black and working-class Americans. An outspoken supporter of the Soviet Union and critic of American racism, he suffered during America’s Cold War anti-communist frenzy—his U.S. passport was revoked, and he was interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Blacklisted due to his political activism, for decades it became nearly impossible for Robeson’s work to be seen in the United States. While under censorship in the U.S., Robeson toured extensively across the world, though his exile took a toll on his health leading to a breakdown in a Moscow hotel room in 1961. He returned to the U.S. for the final decade of his life with his reputation somewhat recovered from the damage of McCarthyism. Robeson’s influence—both artistic and political—is profound and the effects of his legacy are still apparent to this day.