Up Close with Darrell Grant!The NAACP and the Oregon Bach Festival Welcome Darrell Grant to Eugene and the Historic Mims House!

Join The NAACP and the Oregon Bach Festival in welcoming Darrell Grant to Eugene and the
Historic Mims House!
Free appetizers and refreshments
Hear from one of Oregon premiere musical voices!
Short Performance and Talk-
Pianist Darrell Grant has used his musical talent for over two decades in service to his
community as an educator and leader in the arts.
Grant’s multi-faceted creative projects and innovative initiatives reflect a belief in the
extraordinary power of art to communicate, inspire, provoke, inform, and move others to
transform society and themselves.
Music for Justice
Darrell uses his music to harmonize Oregon, focusing on issues from ecology to racial and social
justice.
“Being an artist is not just about performing. I feel that it is important for me to give back with
my art and to use it to connect with others,” he said.
Grant’s belief in using his artistic work for justice comes from his powerful and unique life
influences.
“I have always felt that I grew up at a fortuitous time to be black in America,” he reflects. “I was
born in the civil rights era and so benefited from the incredible sacrifices that those who came
before me made to secure my rights as a citizen. I grew up in the era of affirmative action which
provided windows for me to succeed that I might not have otherwise had. I moved to New York
City at the beginning of an extraordinary period of renaissance for jazz music.”
Experiences that stand out include creating the “Great Day in Portland” photograph showcasing
Portland’s jazz community in 2005, organizing the “Truth & Reconciliation” concert that brought
Bishop Desmond Tutu to Portland in 2009, and driving a piano into the Elliott State Forest play
in support of preservation of public land in 2017.
Among his current projects is The Territory, which is a musical exploration of Oregon’s
geographical and cultural history, from the floods and eruptions that formed its unique
landscape, to the experiences of native peoples, settlers, and immigrants who have called
Oregon home.
For the 2019 Oregon Bach Festival, Grant and his jazz ensemble perform The Territory on July
12. The concert will reimagine Oregon’s history with melodies borrowed from Nez Perce chants,
thematic elements representing rolling ice-age floods, and vibrations he imagines resonating
throughout Oregon’s hills. Join us for an informal pre-concert chat with Darrell Grant
discussing The Territory, 6:30 p.m., July 12.
“My core belief is that life