I'm Jonathan K. Parton, welcome to K-Part.

May 25th marked the third anniversary of the murder of George Floyd and Minneapolis.

Inspired by Floyd's life and the promise of an equitable future in America, the Minnesota

Orchestra commissioned composer Carlos Simon to create a musical piece reflecting these

ideals.

The work is called Breath.

In this conversation, first recorded for Washington Post Live on May 17th, Simon talks

about how he and the breadest Mark Bemuthi Joseph went about composing their powerful

work.

We took three trips on the span of a year and a half or so and one of the first places

we went was George Ford Square and we spent a lot of time there, I think it's four hours,

you know, just kind of sitting in the space and just talking to people, people would

drop out and speak and say hello and so that informed, you know, the work is like these

everyday people and like what happens when the camera's leave?

So let's just start at the beginning briefly explain what Breath is and also why it's

styled so specifically.

Sure.

Well, the piece in itself, it's in memory of George Floyd, but it's not focusing on the

moment, the horrific moment and these ten minutes where there's a knee on the neck.

The piece, it's really about, you know, the systematic racism that we experience in America

and also what do we do after this, you know, the breath of the task and Bemuthi, Mark Bemuthi

and Joseph, Joseph, my collaborator in LeBrettis for the piece, one of the things that we wanted

...