Episode Details

Chatham Baroque has an upcoming concert which features “Lisette quitté la plaine,” the oldest known song text in early Haitian Creole. Baritone Jean Bernard Cerin, who serves as the Director of the Voice Program at Cornell University, joined QED's Anna Singer over the phone to talk about the program.

Jean-Bernard speaks about his research on Haitian classical music and how he came across the Lisette poem. The text was traditionally set to the popular baroque French melody “Que ne suis-je la fougère,” but recordings of an edition with this tune, to Jean-Bernard's knowledge do not exist. He talks about the history of the Creole text and its global journey, and the inception and work of the Lisette Project on studying its evolution.

Jean-Bernard will sing for the concert, joined by soprano Michele Kennedy, Nicholas Mathew on fortepiano/piano, and Chatham Baroque's Scott Pauley on baroque guitar. The program is contextualized by pieces that follow "Lisette quitté la plaine"'s remarkable journey across Haiti, France, New Orleans, and back to its place of origin in Haiti.

The concert will take place at Shadyside Presbyterian Church on Sunday, February 22nd at 2:30pm. More information and tickets can be found on Chatham Baroque's website.

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