Hoyes also has an upcoming album with her band Nite Bjuti (pronounced Night Beauty) that will be released April 14. Their first single, “Mood (Liberation Walk),” reached number nine on NPR’s All Songs Considered.
On Saturday, the musical artist Candice Hoyes performed with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. Hoyes weaves together classical, jazz, and pop to tell stories of African-American experiences.
On Friday, Hoyes visited Springfield high School to share a little bit about her journey as a musician and artist, and share the long legacy of African American women that she is a part of.
She discussed artists who influenced her as she grew up. This included Zora Neale Hurston, the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, anthropologist, and filmmaker who documented racial struggles in the American South, and Leontyne Price, the first African American to sing a leading role in an opera.
“I’m a passionate and dedicated exponent of Black history, and teaching Black history at all ages, and teaching and understanding of who we are and how we have contributed to this country and this world,” Hoyes said.
Hoyes sang the song “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” a song Price once performed, to the students. She led discussions with the students, answering their questions and sharing Price’s story with them.
Price holds a special place in Hoyes’ heart and played a role in her concert Saturday.
Hoyes will be performed “Knoxville Summer of 1915, Op. 24” by Samuel Barber.
“It was originally composed at the commission of Eleanor Steber,” Hoyes said. “But it was for me really crystallized as a piece that I dreamed of singing when I heard it in the voice of the great Leontyne Price.”
She continued, “The music of ‘Knoxville Summer of 1915 will take all of you back to the most tender, vivid and delicious moments of your childhood, no matter what your personal experience has been.”
Hoyes is a classically-trained soprano, making her a perfect match for the moving piece.
She’s previously performed at Carnegie Hall and with artists including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Chaka Khan and Wynton Maralis.
