2020 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music for The Central Park Five, Anthony Davis, will be interviewed by Dana Reason, Assistant Professor of Music at OSU, and is expected to play pieces on stage during the event. Questions will be accepted from the audience.

The Pulitzer jury cited The Central Park Five as "a courageous operatic work, marked by powerful vocal writing and sensitive orchestration, that skillfully transforms a notorious example of contemporary injustice into something empathetic and hopeful." The full opera was premiered last June at California's Long Beach Opera; it was reworked from an earlier piece, Five, which premiered in Newark at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in 2016.

The piece is a musical treatment of a still-raw, real-life subject: the 1989 convictions of five African-American and Latino teenagers of the rape and assault of a white woman, Trisha Meili, in Central Park that April.

The five teenagers' convictions were vacated in 2002, after a serial rapist, Matias Reyes, admitted to the horrific crime. DNA evidence substantiated his confession. The five men settled a lawsuit with the city in 2014.

This event is accessible both in-person and through virtual connection. Wearing of face coverings is required to attend the in-person option.

Join us for the inaugural event in support of OSU's upcoming Arts and Education Complex, to be built in Corvallis, Oregon. This facility will feature a 500-seat, acoustically superior concert hall that doubles as a classroom, along with a smaller, black box performance space that can be configured in multiple ways for theater productions, rehearsals and teaching. Backstage and support space will be integrated throughout the complex to support arts productions and break down barriers between teaching, rehearsal and performance. Art gallery space will feature secure, dramatically lit spaces with appropriate climate control for displaying Oregon State’s art collections and featuring cutting-edge art shows. More information available at https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/arts-and-education-complex or by contacting peter.betjemann@oregonstate.edu.

Accommodations for disabilities may be made during the registration process, or by contacting events@oregonstate.edu or calling 541-737-4717.