The Museum of Fine Arts held its annual “Art in Tune” performance on Tuesday — when artists performed selected or composed pieces inspired by MFA artwork exhibits.
The exhibits artists drew from included: “Black Histories, Black Futures,” “Women Take the Floor,” “Monet and Boston: Lasting Impression,” “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation” and “Cézanne: In and Out of Time.”
The virtual event streamed on the MFA website, YouTube and Facebook.
Nedelka F. Prescod, a vocalist and composer on faculty at Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, performed a traditional “Negro spiritual.”
For her piece, Prescod said she was inspired by a particular work from Loïs Mailou Jones — “Ubi Girl from Tai Region.”
“That just immediately popped out to me, the colors, the vibrancy of it, the African culture that’s represented,” she said in an interview before the performance. “I felt compelled to focus on her work not just visually, but the story behind it.
The Curatorial Study Hall is an MFA internship program for rising high school sophomores and juniors participating in Boston youth organizations, with a special educational emphasis on marginalized artists featured in the MFA.
Tariq Charles, a teen scholar from the Curatorial Study Hall program, performed a spoken word rap acapella about being a Black teenager in America — an identity which he said “kind of consumes you in a way.”
“We’re all kids of the diaspora that is living in the red, white and blue,” Charles rapped. “We couldn’t get a clue, even though you told us we was lesser than you.”
Following this opening collection of pieces, the Cramer Quartet — a period ensemble — played a contemporary work by Caroline Shaw, a queer female composer whom the quartet wanted to give a platform.
Cellist of the Cramer Quartet, Shirley Hunt, said in an interview the artists were able to curate their performances in a creative way, while also using the museum’s 18th century instruments.
“We were given the opportunity to choose the repertoire and create thoughtful connections among the artworks in these different exhibits and MFA,” Hunt said in an interview, “and … with the instruments that we were able to play from the museum’s collection.”
When performing a Hyacinthe Jadin classical piece, the quartet’s performance juxtaposed the Monet painting “Meadow at Giverny.”
The viola used in the piece hadn’t been played since its donation to the museum four decades ago.
Scott and the Cramer Quartet each performed another piece, including Scott’s original work inspired by “Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation,” and a string quartet by Joseph Bologne, a little-known French composer who was the son of a slave in 1745.
For Prescod, the chance to perform music for this event — even if done remotely and ahead of time — gave her the opportunity to use the museum’s “Storytone” piano for her original work entitled “For Obi Girl.”
“When I look at the images in “Ubi Girl,” it was empowering,” Prescod said. “My lyrics are about that … women encouraging ourselves.”
With live music and events on pause because of the pandemic, artists like Prescod are grateful the MFA is pushing boundaries with virtual events such as “Art in Tune.”
“I’ve been switching over to doing more virtual work and more independent projects and presentations and so this fit well,” Prescod said. “It was an open door, and in a season of much shifting and transition so it worked well.”
“Art in Tune” at the MFA is still open to watch.
