Our Stage

D-Composed is a Black chamber music collective that celebrates Black culture and creativity through the music of Black composers. 

 

Led by their mission to uplift and empower society through the music of Black composers, this Chicago-based creative incubator acts as a bridge between the past and present to the future of representation, music-centered experiences, and the communal power of Black composers and their impact. 

 

Music is not just entertainment; this collective music is a storytelling tool that educates and inspires. Unapologetic Blackness is at the core of their experience; protecting, nurturing, and sustaining are on the other side. In the middle lies their impact—the people who make up these experiences, whether as musicians, creatives, or community members.

 

D–COMPOSED /DEE-KUHM-POHZD/ – ADVERB - Our creative process involves the breaking down of preconceived notions, barriers, and opinions of what people think classical music should be to re-writing our narrative to reflect what the classical world could be.  

 

Cheryl Lynn Bruce is an accomplished performer, director, writer, educator and arts leader who has performed on numerous regional stages as well as in Europe and Mexico.  She originated the role of Elizabeth Sandry for Steppenwolf’s Tony Award-winner The Grapes of Wrath  directed by Frank Galati (Cort Theatre, National Theatre (UK), La Jolla Playhouse.) 

 

Film credits include: Stranger Than Fiction; Daughters of the Dust; The Fugitive. Television credits include: Prison Break; There Are No Children Here; Separate but Equal; To Sir with Love, 2. A Teatro Vista company member, Ms. Bruce directed Sandra Delgado’s La Havana Madrid premiere (Steppenwolf Theatre 1700, Goodman Theatre, The Miracle Center, Navy Pier Lake Stage, The Den Theatre), 

 

Ms. Bruce has won: two prestigious Helen Hayes Awards (Best Supporting Actress, 2019 and Outstanding Lead Actress,1991);  Rauschenberg residency through a 3Arts fellowship (2015), a Yale University Art Gallery residency (2011); and both the Jane Addams Hull House Association’s Woman of Valor Award (2010) and 3Arts Award (2010) for her work as theatre artist and educator.

 

Shani Crowe is an interdisciplinary artist from Chicago. She uses Black beauty culture and African aesthetics to foster unity and connectivity among people of African descent. A life-long braider, she most notably creates complex braided hairstyles and captures them as photographic portraits. Beyond her portraiture, Shani applies the materials and techniques of braiding and traditional Black craft to sculpture, performance, experimental video, fibers, and installation art. Her work examines themes of identity, value systems, grief, and the innate beauty of Black being.

 

Shani was part of the ensemble that represented the United States at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Her work and performances have been featured at the Broad Museum in Los  Angeles, the International African American Museum in Charleston, the Museum  of  Contemporary African and  Diasporan Art (MoCADA) in Brooklyn, the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh, Miami Art Basel, and on Saturday Night Live in collaboration with Solange  Knowles. She lives and works on Chicago’s South Side.