Siletz Bay Music Festival: My Words Are My Sword

Presented by Siletz Bay Music Festival to coincide With Black History Month, My Words Are My Sword is a groundbreaking musical drama for actor and orchestra that fuses jazz, hip-hop and classical music. It will be presented with two performances at the B'nai B'rith Camp in Otis, on February 9 at 7pm in a celebration of Black History Month. (A free concert for area students will be also presented at 1:30pm)

The evening's event will also serve to honor the life and work of the late Yaacov "Yaki" Bergman, who provided the Festival with guidance and inspiration as its long-time artistic director prior to his untimely passing in 2023. A reception will follow the concert.

My Words Are My Sword is a stunning orchestral piece that explores the experience of being black in America through music and spoken word, poetry, hip hop, and the words of Frederick Douglas, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Martin Luther King, Jr. When the idea for the project came to Maestro Yaki Bergman during the COVID hiatus, he introduced actor-poet Darius Wallace and composer Jasnam Daya Singh to write the words and compose the music. The entire process was completed on Zoom.

About Siletz Bay Music Festival

The mission of Siletz Bay Music Festival is to bring multi-genre world class music performed by outstanding musicians to the Central Oregon Coast; to reach across race, culture, age, social and economic barriers, to uplift and educate all people seeking extraordinary musical experiences.

The Siletz Bay Music Festival has grown from an intimate chamber music series to becoming a centerpiece of cultural life on the Central Oregon Coast, bringing great chamber and orchestral music, jazz, and added surprises to throngs of Lincoln City residents and visitors for more than two weeks each summer. While the Festival has changed, the constant has been the devotion of our audiences.

We are the only on-going music festival in the region that brings together more than 65 extraordinary musicians from all over the globe, participating in a variety of musical genres. Under the guidance of Artistic Director, Yaacov Bergman, we continue to create new and exciting programming with a proven mix of classical favorites, unique, eclectic, cutting-edge musical selections, family-friendly, and theatre events.