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A Double Standard

Pacifica Quartet & Karen Slack
  • Collaboration
  • New Work
A Double Standard

A song cycle by composer James Lee III for soprano and string quartet, commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, and the Shriver Hall Concert Series for soprano Karen Slack and the Pacifica Quartet. The work sets the poem of the same name by 19th-century Baltimore poet Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, a free Black woman. Slack and the Pacifica Quartet gave the premiere in 2024, with performances pairing the cycle alongside works by Beethoven and Florence Price.