Slide Show Library

On Monday, March 16, 2009, Carnegie Hall presented the world premiere of Ask Your Mama!, a collaboration between four-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman and five-time Grammy winner Jessye Norman. This multimedia presentation, performed for a sold-out audience, was based on Langston Hughes’s text Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. The evening began with a cocktail reception in the Shorin Club Room, where gala patrons received an insider’s perspective of the concert program with an interview featuring composer Laura Karpman and Langston Hughes’s biographer, Arnold Rampersad. Guests then proceeded into Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage for a vivacious and inspired performance of Ask Your Mama!. After the concert, patrons attended an exclusive cast party dinner in the Rohatyn Room, where they mingled with Jessye Norman and other members of the cast.