Two-Time GRAMMY® Winner Tonality Honors the Life of Ahmaud Arbery on SONGS OF REMEMBERING
Updated: 3 days ago
"This is a major recording."
—San Francisco Classical Voice
Songs of Remembering asks listeners to do exactly what its title suggests: remember—not passively, but with purpose. At its center is “Running From, Running To: A Musical Reflection on Ahmaud Arbery,” an eight-movement work created by Tonality founder and conductor Dr. Alexander Lloyd Blake and Ogi Ifediora in partnership with Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones. Moving from “Who Was Ahmaud?” and “Life Defined” through “Satilla Shores,” “The Incident” and the urgent “No More!,” the piece makes room for Arbery’s life before confronting his 2020 killing and its aftermath. By the time it reaches “Running Free,” the music has traveled through grief, anger and remembrance toward something that feels closer to release. Soprano Angel Blue, baritone Jamal M. Moore and alto Ogi join Tonality and Wild Up, bringing individual voices to a work built around a story that should never be reduced to the circumstances of one tragic day.
The album extends that conversation beyond its centerpiece with Blake’s arrangements of “Deep River” and “Poor Wayfaring Stranger,” two familiar spirituals that take on added resonance alongside Running From, Running To. A separate a cappella version of “No More!” strips the message down to voices alone, reinforcing just how central the human voice is to everything Tonality does. Throughout Songs of Remembering, Blake and his collaborators use choral music not simply to recount events, but to ask what remembrance can accomplish—how music can hold grief, demand justice and still leave space for healing and resilience. It’s serious work, but it never loses sight of the humanity at the story's center.
Dr. Alexander Lloyd Blake founded Los Angeles-based Tonality in 2016 with the idea that choral music could be both artistically adventurous and socially engaged, building programs around issues including racial equity, gun violence, homelessness, immigration and climate change. The ensemble is a two-time GRAMMY® Award winner, earning Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album honors for its collaborations with Carla Patullo and The Scorchio Quartet on So She Howls and Nomadica, while Blake is also a GRAMMY®-nominated arranger whose work spans concert music, film and television. Blake served as choir conductor on the film score for The Odyssey, and Tonality's voices can be heard on Joseph Trapanese's score for Whalefall, opening nationally from 20th Century Studios on October 16. Blake is also a 2026 recipient of the California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. On Songs of Remembering, Tonality is joined by Wild Up, the contemporary music ensemble, along with Angel Blue, Jamal M. Moore and Ogi, for a project that brings together performance, storytelling and social purpose. More than simply remembering Ahmaud Arbery, Songs of Remembering makes a powerful case for why remembering matters.
For more information on Tonality and Songs of Remembering, visit ourtonality.org.
REVIEWS
"a dignified act of remembrance, pain and anger … touching and done with a clear
sense of love."
★★★★★
—BBC Music Magazine
