Press Release

December 18, 2025

For Immediate Release

Press Contact:

Gail Wein - (646) 484-9691

ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com

Baritone Joseph Parrish returns to Baruch Performing Arts Center February 10, 2026

“Songs from the Harlem Renaissance” program includes music by Margaret Bonds and Harry T. Burleigh with texts by Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar among others

Concert curated for Baruch PAC celebrates Black History Month

“impressive… a round, potent, take-notice voice” – Opera Wire

The award-winning baritone Joseph Parrish returns to Baruch Performing Arts Center on February 10, 2026 with a special program curated for the venue. The evening celebrates Black History Month with Parrish and pianist Amir Farid performing songs from the Harlem Renaissance.

“This original program is centered around one of the pioneering cultural movements in the United States of America during the 20th century," says Parrish. "Through themes of heritage, race, love, urban life, and spirituality, this program sheds a light on the musical and literary themes that shaped a generation of African Americans and many more to come.”

Featured composers include Margaret Bonds, Harry T. Burleigh, Undine Smith Moore, Hall Johnson, with select texts by Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar among others. Full program details below. 

Parrish performs "Elysium" by Harry Burleigh

Tickets for baritone Joseph Parrish's performance on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at 7 pm are $35 general admission ($20 with CUNY ID), available at bpac.baruch.cuny.edu. Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Ave in Manhattan (enter on 25th Street, between 3rd and Lexington Avenues).

Tuesday, February 10 at 7 pm

Joseph Parrish, baritone

Amir Farid, piano

Songs of the Harlem Renaissance

Baruch Performing Arts Center

55 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10010

(enter on 25th Street, between 3rd and Lexington Avenues)

Tickets are $35 available online bpac.baruch.cuny.edu

($20 with CUNY ID)

PROGRAM

Avery Robinson: Water Boy

Hall Johnson (text by Langston Hughes): Dusty Road

Harry T. Burleigh (text by Paul Laurence Dunbar): A Corn Song

Arr. Paul Campbell: John Henry

David N. Baker (text by Mari Evans): Status Symbol

Charles Brown (text by Claude McKay): The Barrier

Richard Fariña: Birmingham Sunday

Jacqueline Hairston (text by Cauntee Cullen): Pagan Prayer

Undine Smith Moore (text by Georgia Douglas Johnson): I want to die while you love me

Harry T. Burleigh (text by James Weldon Johnson): The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face

Harry T. Burleigh (text by James Weldon Johnson): You ask me if I love you?

Harry T. Burleigh (text by James Weldon Johnson): Her Eyes, Twin Pools of Mystic Light

Hall Johnson: Honor! Honor

Moses Hogan: Were you there? 

Hall Johnson: City Called Heaven

Margaret Bonds: You Can Tell The World

March 9: Akshara Music Ensemble

Akshara brings together artists from diverse backgrounds—Carnatic, Hindustani, Western Classical, Jazz and Folk—each contributing their own voice to a sound that’s rooted in tradition and shaped by personal experience. A Silberman Recital Series concert

April 23-25: Pigeonwing Dance with the Neave Trio: “Rising”

An evening-length work that brings together the Grammy-nominated Neave Trio, Pigeonwing Dance, a score by Robert Sirota, choreography by Gabrielle Lamb, and the spoken words of oceanographers and naturalists.

Joseph Parrish, winner of the 2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, is a Baltimore native with degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School. He made his NYC recital debut at Merkin Hall in a performance co-presented by WPA with the Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir as a follow up to his Kennedy Center debut the previous season.

Joseph made his European opera debut with the Salzburg Festival as Potapitsch in Prokofiev's The Gambler and his European solo recital debut at the Usedomer Music Festival. He’s appeared with Cincinnati Opera, singing Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Parlando NYC in Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart e Salieri, as Salieri.

During the 25-26 season Joseph will appear in recital with Ashmont Hill Chamber Music, New York Festival of Song, Baruch PAC, and Weinberg Center for the Arts. He’ll also appear as soloists with the Maryland Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He’ll also appear alongside members of The Orchestra of St. Luke’s in a tour throughout the five boroughs of NYC.

Joseph has served as a Music Advancement Program chorus fellow, Gluck Community Service Fellow, Morse Teaching Artist, and was part of the inaugural cohort of Shared Voices, a program promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion through collaborations with Historically Black Colleges and top conservatories in the US.

Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Avenue (enter on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, on the south side of the street) in the heart of Manhattan. Praised for its superb acoustics, the Rosalyn and Irwin Engelman Recital Hall has been called "a perfect hall for chamber music" by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.