Tenor Nicholas Phan and Palaver Strings’ New Album, “A Change Is Gonna Come”

Released on Azica Records, the album includes a world premiere recording of Errollyn Wallen’s "Protest Songs"

Three-time Grammy-nominated Tenor Nicholas Phan joins musician-led string ensemble Palaver Strings’ and Jazz Vocalist Farayi Malek, for a new album, A Change Is Gonna Come. Released on Azica Records, the album features 13 traditional songs of protest and music inspired by social movements and historical events, including a world premiere recording of a new commission by Errollyn Wallen titled Protest Songs.

A Change Is Gonna Come acknowledges the past and present and celebrates the act of protest as a human right.

The album opens with an instrumental arrangement of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind and closes with the title track by Sam Cooke, an anthem closely identified with the Civil Rights movement. Partly inspired by Blowin’ in the Wind, Cooke’s song – featuring Farayi Malek – was a response to his lived experience of Jim Crow-era racism. The melodies of both songs have roots in the spiritual “No More Auction Block For Me/Many Thousands Gone.”

Phan shares, “In an age where it seems like most tech algorithms' primary goal is to provoke anger in order to keep us scrolling on our phones, this program feels important. Music is unique as a form of protest, because, as these songs demonstrate, it has the power to win hearts and minds. Hope for lasting change lies in that special power of song, as does hope for healing and consensus building in this increasingly fractured and fraught time.”

Listen to the single, Fiddle and the Drum, below

American Tenor Nicholas Phan regularly performs with the world's leading orchestras and opera companies with a diverse repertoire that spans nearly 500 years of music. As a recording artist, he has been nominated three times for the Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Phan is the first singer of Asian descent to be nominated in the history of the category, which has been awarded by the Recording Academy since 1959.