Eastman to release new album “In Plain Sight: The Black Anthology” on August 21, 2026

The University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music expands its discography with the release of IN PLAIN SIGHT: The Black Anthology on Lexicon Classics. Featuring outstanding young students from all studios of Eastman’s Voice, Opera, and Vocal Coaching department, together with three stars of the school’s distinguished faculty – Grammy nominee Joshua Conyers, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Nicole Cabell, and Marian Anderson Competition winner Kiera Duffy – the new double album showcases selections from the Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers, shining a light on one of the nation’s richest but most overlooked musical traditions. Produced by Conyers and Grammy nominee Jonathan Estabrooks, and engineered for Stereo and ATMOS Audio by Grammy winner and University of Rochester faculty member Stephen Roessner, this landmark recording is scheduled for release on August 21, 2026. Meanwhile, two tracks are already available as advance singles: Cabell’s interpretation of “Love, Let the Wind Cry…How I Adore Thee” by Undine Smith Moore, dubbed the “Dean of Black Women Composers,” and Eastman undergraduate Jordan Oney’s account of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” the Langston Hughes setting that helped launch the career of Howard Swanson. To celebrate the recording, Eastman presents Conyers, Cabell, Duffy, and students in live “In Plain Sight” recitals at the school’s Kilbourn Hall (Sep 15) and at Kaufman Music Center’s Merkin Hall in NYC (Oct 16).

Created at the Eastman School of Music and recorded at the University of Rochester’s Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, IN PLAIN SIGHT reflects the school’s exceptional collaborative spirit. Unusually for a major solo art-song album, the project draws on the talents of more than 40 students and faculty members from Eastman’s Voice, Opera & Vocal Coaching, Percussion, and Strings Departments, who approached the recording not only as performers, but also as stewards of a vital artistic legacy. Representing every stage of study, from first-year undergraduates to doctoral candidates, the 30-plus featured students addressed each song with maturity and conviction, producing performances of phenomenal musical and dramatic power.

Repertoire for the project is drawn from the Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers (1977), the seminal collection compiled and curated by the late Willis C. Patterson, a Marian Anderson Award-winning bass-baritone who also served as president of the National Association of Negro Musicians and Associate Dean of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. Gathering together gems by underrepresented Black composers who worked within the classical vocal tradition, his collection was hailed as a “groundbreaking anthology of Black art songs” by The New York Times. The featured songs are works of extraordinary depth, sophistication, and emotional range that, despite having long been preserved in libraries, anthologies, and archives, are still only rarely studied or programmed in recital. IN PLAIN SIGHT’s title addresses this paradox, while the recording sets out to amplify some of the most important Black American voices and restore their legacy to the broader canon.

In addition to Moore and Swanson, the featured composers range from such illustrious figures as Florence Price, William Grant Still, and George Walker, to a host of less familiar ones. To interpret their songs, the students are joined by faculty members Nicole Cabell, an Eastman alumna blessed with “one of the most beautiful soprano voices of our time” (The Classical Review); soprano Kiera Duffy, known for her “crystalline, multifaceted sound and wonderfully flexible technique” (Observer); and Joshua Conyers, who boasts a “deliciously honeyed baritone that would seduce anyone” (Opera News), and by pianists including Timothy Long, Eastman’s Artistic and Music Director of Opera. Through their collective dedication and artistry, IN PLAIN SIGHT honors Black American composers and helps ensure that their music will continue to be heard, studied, and celebrated. As Conyers explains:

“The project brings together artists across backgrounds to interpret these songs, affirming that this music belongs to the world. It is rooted in Black creative genius and offered as shared cultural inheritance.”

“In Plain Sight: The Black Anthology” In Concert

Rochester, NY | Tuesday, September 15, 2026

7:30 p.m. | Kilbourn Hall, Eastman School of Music

Details + Tickets