Empire Liquor Mart

PROGRAM NOTE

“Empire Liquor Mart (9127 S. Figueroa St.)” is a song from The Ambassador, an album and stage piece commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Each song contained within The Ambassador is linked to a Los Angeles street address. These street addresses are in turn connected to characters and events— some historical, some from film and fiction, others from my own imagination. "Empire" is an attempt to tell the story of Latasha Harlins, an African-American teenager shot to death by the proprietress of the eponymous liquor store on March 16, 1991, just days after the videotaped beating of Rodney King. While the original album version is expansive, it was a joy, in writing the present arrangement, to stretch further into the full sound world of the orchestra.

— Gabriel Kahane, August 2019

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Empire Liquor Mart (Excerpt)

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