Commissioned Works

A Flint (MI) Public Library Project: I was commissioned by the Flint Public Library to create a program on the subject of the freedom songs of the Civil Rights Movement. Beginning with a video conference with library staff, members of the 100 voice Title I Children’s Choir and their directors Diane Hardy and Sidney Oliver, over the next year and a half, we created a live performance evening (April, 2005), an exhibition of artwork and writings created by the members of the choir, and an audio CD of the songs performed by the Choir (March, 2006). I was and remain caught by the transformative vision of the library’s mission in this offering of historical documents to the community through the voices of her children.
Liberty or Death Suite: Commissioned by MUSE-Cincinnati’s Women’s Choir, Catherine Roma, Director, premier performance, June 25-26, 2004. This work was commissioned to commemorate the Grand Opening of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
Anybody Here? Song Journey in Seven Movements (1995): Commissioned by REDWOOD CULTURAL WORK, world premier, performed by the Redwood House Choir conducted by Elizabeth Seja Min, November 24 & 25, 1995 in Oakland CA.
Sing Oh Barren One: Isaiah 54:1-10: Commissioned by the Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Program
The Temptation of St. Anthony: A music-theater piece based on a novel written by Flaubert in 1874
Collaboration between composer Bernice Johnson Reagon and Robert Wilson

Management of the Music and Works of Bernice Johnson Reagon

Music licensing: contact Kathy Ostien

Music Commissions and other information: or write to: Songtalk Publishing, PO Box 56482, Washington, DC 20040-6482