New Haven, Connecticut, USA - Students at New Haven’s Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet High School will present the world premiere of “Broken Chains: A Gospel Hip-Hopera,” a musical written and composed by Yale graduate students, on Wednesday and Thursday, Dec. 21 and 22.
The production of “Broken Chains” — a hip-hop rendition of the life of St. Peter — is the most recent outgrowth of a longstanding partnership between Yale and Co-op High School.
Graduate student Patrick Gray wrote the libretto for “Broken Chains.” Steel Pan virtuoso and Yale composition student Andy Akiho composed the initial score for several of the main songs. Last spring, the Co-Op High School choir premiered three pieces from the musical, accompanied by a jazz quartet from the Yale School of Music.
....Co-op After School provided the 20 custom-made steel pans used in the show. The steel pan...is a particularly apt instrument for a play about “ideological oppression and non-violent resistance,” say the play’s organizers. Co-Op After School commissioned a steel pan master in Trinidad to make the instruments for the high school’s brand-new steel band, which supplies most of the musical accompaniment for the gospel hip-hopera.
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