When Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society found records detailing iconic composer George Frideric Handel’s ties to the slave trade, it responded in a way only the organization could: through music and performance.

Dr. Anthony Trecek-King, resident conductor at the Handel and Haydn Society, said he and programming consultant and countertenor Reginald Mobley had the idea for a concert series during the many Zoom meetings the organization had to discuss how they would move forward with the information uncovered: that Handel had been paid in stock for the South Sea Company, a slave-trading company, for his work commissioned by James Brydges, the Duke of Chandos.

Trecek-King and Mobley’s idea became “Crossing The Deep,” a special concert series showing the parallels between the choral works of Handel and the spirituals of enslaved Africans in America.

“Spirituals and the music of other peoples is just as important as the music of Handel and the European canonic music that we’re looking at,” Trecek-King said on GBH’s Under the Radar. “We’ve been trying to raise the importance and awareness of this music for years. And this is the perfect place to do it: with an organization who is steeped in European classical music. What better way than to bring in spirituals and music of other people at an equal level?”

Mobley said it’s important to recognize spirituals as early music, just like the work of Handel and other legendary composers like Johann Sebastian Bach.

“There’s records — even in the late 17th century — of the enslaved Africans making music and using it,” Mobley said. “And so the idea that only white Europeans were intelligent enough to find a way to use the arts or use music as a way of processing and communicating and and contextualizing? Absolutely not. We were doing it, too. So it seemed like a no-brainer to connect these two things, because ultimately, at the end of the day, there is that common thread that does tie all of us together, regardless of race.”

Rather than “canceling” the composer or disavowing the uncovered history, Trecek-King said “Crossing the Deep” is more about context and understanding.

“With all that’s going on in the world today, people, in one sense, need this. They need to find connection in both sets of music, because this concert isn’t an indictment on anybody. It’s not an indictment on Handel at all. It’s to say, ‘Let’s use this as an opportunity to ask questions and reflect upon the world in which we live today.’ And I think we nailed that.”

“Crossing the Deep” takes place on Jan. 17 and 19 at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory. For more information, click here.

Guests:

  • Dr. Anthony Trecek-King, resident conductor at the Handel and Haydn Society
  • Reginald Mobley, a countertenor and programming consultant at the Handel and Haydn Society