Premiere Sunday, March 20, 2022
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Commissioned by Commonwealth Youthchoirs (CY) and composed by the late jazz violinist and composer John Blake, Jr. with the libretto by his sister, storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston. The Good Raised Up: A Story of Community, Integrity, and the Road to Freedom= is a sung story that recounts a night in the 1850’s when the Johnsons, a Quaker family who had committed their home to the Underground Railroad, ensured that some Black Americans who were hiding there were not captured by a band of Federal marshals.
Filmed in the original site of the events, the work is performed by elementary-aged students from across CY’s programs, Keystone State Boychoir, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and Find Your Instrument, a Philadelphia school-based music education program. Booker Rowe, the first Black member of The Philadelphia Orchestra, will be featured on violin during the performance. Rowe retired in 2020 after more than 50 years of playing with the orchestra!
The Johnson House Historic Site is one of Philadelphia’s only accessible Underground Railroad sites available to the public. Samuel and Jennett Johnson routinely offered their home as a meeting place and stop on the Underground Railroad, providing sanctuary, transportation, food and clothing to an untold number of people. Two notable and prominent abolitionists who participated in meetings at the Johnson’s house are Harriet Tubman, the most famous “conductor” of the Underground Railroad and William Still, often referred to as the “Father of the Underground Railroad.”
Vintage The Good Raised Up images
About the Performance
The Good Raised Up is a dramatic composition for treble chorus, violin, percussion, piano and several narrators. The work is composed in eight sections and recounts a night in the 1850s when a Quaker family in Germantown protected a group of escaped slaves from capture by a band of federal marshals. Each of the eight sections focuses on a particular facet of the event or the historical context.
The first and second sections “Opening” and “There is a Saying” set the stage by outlining how the Quakers came to take their anti-slavery stance. “People Walked” shines a light on the experience of those who made their way from slavery to freedom using the network of safe houses known as the “Underground Railroad.”
With the next sections, “But in Philadelphia”, “In a House in Germantown”, and “By the Leading of the Light” the narrative focuses on the Johnson family in Germantown who made a bold decision to offer assistance and protection to freedom-seekers.
“Open Up!” is the dramatic climax of the work. When a group of federal marshals appears at the Johnson family’s home to search for escaped slaves, one of the Johnson brothers ingeniously hides the slaves on the roof while the other brother assures the search party that there are no slaves in the house.
The final section, “Indwelling Spirit” reflects on the ideals of the Johnson family and the Quaker faith. The text sung by the chorus echoes the opening narration, a quote by Robert Barclay, a noted Quaker writer and theologian of the 17th Century with the words “I find the evil weakening in me and the good raised up.”
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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PRODUCER, $5,000
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ASSISTANT PRODUCER, $1,000
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DIRECTOR, $500
- Tia and Kevin Mathisen
VIDEOGRAPHER, $100
- Anonymous
- Debra and Carleton Erdman
- Ann and Christopher Heavens
- Lynn and Joe Pokrifka
- Susan and David Wadsworth
- Jennifer and Daniel Wasserman
- Judy and Ken Weinstein
- Noah Weinstein
NARRATOR, $50
- Barbara C. Crozier and James Peterson
CONDUCTOR, gift of any amount!
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We are grateful for all of the past support for this project.
A PNC Arts Alive grant supported the initial commission of the work in 2012-2013.