{"id":536,"date":"2026-06-30T20:59:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/visual-and-performing-arts\/?p=536"},"modified":"2026-07-08T14:27:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:27:47","slug":"clark-conductor-choir-revive-the-memory-and-power-of-frederick-douglass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/visual-and-performing-arts\/clark-conductor-choir-revive-the-memory-and-power-of-frederick-douglass\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark conductor, choir revive the memory and power of Frederick Douglass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull split-background-75 has-dark-purple-background-color has-background is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--50)\"><figure style=\"aspect-ratio:auto;\" class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/visual-and-performing-arts\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/134\/Cailin-Manson-Mechanics-hall.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"The Clark University Choir, led by Conductor Cailin Marcel Manson, performed the world premiere of\u00a0Frederick: A Cantata on the Life of Frederick Douglass\u00a0at Mechanics Hall, spring 2026.\" style=\"width:100%;height:100%;object-fit:cover;\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1857, Frederick Douglass stood on the stage of the newly opened Mechanics Hall in Worcester and delivered an address in which he spoke about the immorality of slavery, the Dred Scott decision that denied citizenship to Black people in the U.S, and the emancipation of the West Indies in 1838.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One hundred sixty-nine years after Douglass\u2019 words rang out, they were revived on the Mechanics Hall stage, this time set to music. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegram.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2026\/04\/17\/late-rutland-composers-frederick-douglass-to-have-world-premiere\/89418039007\/\">Frederick: A Cantata on the Life of Frederick Douglass<\/a>\u201d had its world premiere on April 25, conducted by Cailin Marcel Manson, director of music performance at Clark, and featuring a chorus that included the Clark University Choir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen we started rehearsing \u2018Frederick,\u2019 I told the Clarkies, \u2018We are in a time that seems unprecedented, where everything seems volatile,\u2019\u201d Manson says. \u201c\u2018But we are remembering one of our greatest and best, and his words are still challenging us to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"arrow\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/06\/18\/clark-conductor-choir-revive-the-memory-and-power-of-frederick-douglass\/\">Read the full story in Clarku News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cailin Marcel Manson, director of music performance at Clark, conducted the world premiere of \u201cFrederick: A Cantata on the Life of Frederick Douglass,\u201d featuring a chorus that included the Clark University Choir.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,15,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-work","category-homepage-news","category-music"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Clark conductor, choir revive the memory and power of Frederick Douglass | Department of Visual and Performing Arts | Clark University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/visual-and-performing-arts\/clark-conductor-choir-revive-the-memory-and-power-of-frederick-douglass\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clark conductor, choir revive the memory and power of Frederick Douglass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Cailin Marcel Manson, director of music performance at Clark, conducted the world premiere of \u201cFrederick: A Cantata on the Life of Frederick Douglass,\u201d featuring a chorus that included the Clark University Choir.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/visual-and-performing-arts\/clark-conductor-choir-revive-the-memory-and-power-of-frederick-douglass\/\" \/>\n<meta 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content=\"Laurel McLaughlin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Clark conductor, choir revive the memory and power of Frederick Douglass | Department of Visual and Performing Arts | Clark University","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/visual-and-performing-arts\/clark-conductor-choir-revive-the-memory-and-power-of-frederick-douglass\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Clark conductor, choir revive the memory and power of Frederick Douglass","og_description":"Cailin Marcel Manson, director of music performance at Clark, conducted the world premiere of \u201cFrederick: A Cantata on the Life of Frederick Douglass,\u201d featuring a chorus that 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