Lexicon Classics is proud to present Black Pierrot, a landmark album showcasing baritone Sidney Outlaw in two seminal works: Brittney “B.E.” Boykin’s revolutionary song cycle, hailed by Outlaw as “The Black Winterreise,” and William Grant Still’s poignant Songs of Separation, which includes texts by Arna Bontemps, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, and Philippe Thoby Marcelin.
 

Commissioned by the Merola Opera Program, Boykin’s cycle has already made history with five performances—a rarity for contemporary classical premieres. Its 2024 debut at Oakland School for the Arts earned a standing ovation, followed by an acclaimed official world premiere at San Francisco’s Bayview Opera House. The piece then traveled to the Manhattan School of Music and Africa as part of the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Arts Program, bridging continents with its resonant exploration of Black identity. Paired with Still’s 1945 masterpiece, Songs of Separation, the album reimagines art song through a 21st-century lens, blending haunting lyricism with cultural urgency.
 

“This isn’t just music—it’s a movement,” says Outlaw. “Boykin’s work speaks to the soul of our time, while Still’s cycle echoes struggles still present eight decades later. Together, they form a dialogue across generations.”