fbpx Skip to main content

Viola! Panel Discussion and Song Cycle Premiere

Event Info

THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 7, 2019. 7:30 PM

Viola! is a new work on the fate of the Viola Edwards Hospital which opened in 1922 as the first African American-owned hospital in Pensacola, Florida. The fate of the hospital and its owner, Viola Edwards, is at the core of this story and reveals two women’s lives altered in pursuit of the American dream.
Join us for this two-day event with a panel discussion and song cycle premiere.

Viola! Panel Discussion is a conversation of the conception, significance and story of Viola!, the new American work on the fate of the Viola Edwards Hospital. Join the discussion on Thursday, November 7, 2019, at the Music Hall at UWF’s Center for Fine and Performing Arts, with featured panelist Judge Margaret Burnham, professor of law and founder of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University in Boston; Lois Henry, composer and pianist of Viola! Song Cycle; Robin Reshard, librettist of Viola!; and Dr. Laura Edler, assistant professor of social work at the University of West Florida.

Viola! is commissioned by the Kukua Institute. This event, sponsored in part by the University of West Florida’s John C. Pace Symposium Series, is free and open to the public. Register here for your free ticket.

Reception to follow. Register for FREE panel discussion.

FRIDAY. NOVEMBER 8, 2019. 7:30 PM

Viola! Song Cycle Premiere is an evening of songs and narration from this new American work. Viola! is the story of two women’s lives altered in the pursuit of the American dream. This new work, based on true events, shares events that happened at Pensacola’s first black-owned hospital and its founder, Viola Edwards. The hospital was a place of hopes and dreams for one and a place of life and death for another.

Join this inaugural and historic event at the Music Hall at UWF’s Center for Fine and Performing Arts, on Friday, November 8, 2019, with the music of composer and pianist Lois Henry, writer Robin Reshard, and a stellar cast of professional opera singers directed and led by bass-baritone Lloyd Reshard, Jr. Tickets are $35 and $15 for students (with ID).

Viola! is commissioned by the Kukua Institute.

Friends of Foo

Have an event you want to add to the lineup? Click below to become a Friend of Foo.

Add your event

©2014-2024 ACE, All Rights Reserved
General Inquiries Contact: [email protected]
Media Contact: Kinnon Phillips [email protected]
Local Media Contact: Leigh Rendfrey [email protected]