Son of a slave and French aristocrat, Joseph Bologne has reached the top of his game – music teacher to Marie Antoinette and Europe’s fencer to beat. But when a bedridden Mozart is carried into his kitchen, he attracts the attention of a secret police force returning people of colour to slavery.

As Paris hurtles toward Revolution, Bologne is forced to choose between his creative freedom and the crusade for equality. Can he sacrifice his bow for his sword?

This is the true story of three immigrants – Marie Antoinette, Mozart, and the Chevalier – conflating the French Revolution with the Resistance against authoritarianism unfolding today.

The full-length stage play will continue to be workshopped throughout 2021.

Our ‘concert theatre’ tour with just four actors intersperses Bologne’s finest movements with dramatic and comedic scenes. We either tour with our own ensemble of 7, or perform with your orchestra. The 80 minute show can accompany a talkback on racial equity in the arts, as well as both lectures and masterclasses for universities.

A playlist of the music is streamable here.
Complete video & full scores and parts
all available upon request

This story is attributed to the work of Margaret Casely-Hayford, Chi-chi Nwanoku and Gabriel Banat, whose passionate efforts have brought the Chevalier to life.

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
-Voltaire

Press

The Chevalier Project

The Chevalier is the centrepiece of an international advocacy campaign for racial representation across the US and EU orchestra ecology. Each performance raises money for the Sphinx National Alliance for Audition Support which funds auditions for musicians of colour in the United States to win tenured chairs in US orchestras. We are creating a new audition alliance with the Chineke! Foundation in London to amplify this effort in Europe, the Chineke! European Alliance for Audition Support (EAAS). Musicians of colour need financial support to audition for orchestras that have stubbornly resisted inclusion, particularly among Black players, composers, and conductors. Bologne’s story is one of many that must be restored to our lopsided history. We are also partnering with the Festival Saint-Georges in Bologne’s hometown in Guadeloupe, to open-source an digitise all of Bologne’s 250+ compositions.

Artists

RJ Foster
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges

RJ Foster is a New York based actor whose work includes theatre, television, and film. In theatre, he has worked at theatres such as the Oregon Shakespeare Theatre, Folger Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Arena Stage, Classic Stage Company, Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Billie Holiday Theatre with Harry Lennix, and others. His television credits include such television shows as “Bull,” “The Good Fight,” “Power,” “The Blacklist” among others. He is a current member of the Resident Acting Company, formerly the Pearl Theatre Company. His work has been nominated for three Audelco awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Most recently he has appeared in Seize the King written by WIll Power and directed by Carl Colfield at the Classical Theatre of Harlem.

Bill Barclay
Writer, Director, Producer

Hailed a ‘personable polymath’ in the London Times, Barclay was director of music at Shakespeare’s Globe from 2012-2019, where he produced music for over 120 productions and 150 concerts. A director, composer, writer and producer, he is the artistic director of Concert Theatre Works. Broadway and West End credits include Farinelli and the King, Twelfth Night, and Richard III, all starring Mark Rylance. A passionate advocate for evolving the concert hall, he has created works of concert theatre for the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, and six times for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Peer Gynt, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Andris Nelsons, The Magic Flute, L’Histoire du Soldat with Charles Dutoit). Other credits include The Silkroad Ensemble, London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Virginia Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Tanglewood, Washington National Cathedral and Buckingham Palace.

Brendon Elliott
Solo Violin

A three-time concerto competition winner, Brendon Elliott has  performed with the New York Philharmonic and was recently guest soloist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Richmond Symphony Orchestra. In 2015 and 2019, Brendon toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi Ensemble including Carnegie Hall. Elliott was a three-time semifinalist in the National Sphinx Competition, earning the National Sphinx Competition Achievement Award in 2012. He was also a National Finalist in the American String Teacher’s Association National Solo Competition.  Elliott enjoyed a role in the feature-length film documentary The Bridgetower where he portrayed the young adult version of the Afro-European child violin prodigy George Bridgetower. Elliott received his Bachelor’s with Pamela Frank and Joseph Silverstein at The Curtis Institute of Music in 2016 and his Master’s with Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes at The Juilliard School in 2018.

Merritt Janson
Marie Antoinette

Janson is a Brooklyn-based actor and guitarist working across theater, television and film. An Off-Broadway regular, she has performed with The Public Theater (most recently in Richard II, a co-production with WNYC), Theatre for a New Audience (Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure, Tamburlaine the Great, Notes from Underground), Red Bull Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, American Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare & Company and many others. Alongside her extensive classical work, Janson is devoted to developing new work and has originated roles in Robert Woodruff’s Notes From Underground and Autumn Sonata, Your Blues Ain’t Sweet Like Mine created by Ruben Santiago-Hudson; Built with Robert O’Hara, Jonathan Franzen’s House For Sale directed by Daniel Fish, The Deception created by Dominique Serrand, and The Onion Cellar with Amanda Palmer and The Dresden Dolls. She can be found regularly onscreen most recently appearing on “Elementary,” “Billions,” “Quantico,” and “Madam Secretary.”

David Joseph
W.A. Mozart

Actor and classically trained tenor, Joseph has performed twice with The Boston Symphony Orchestra (Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Mozart in The Chevalier), and is a fourteen season veteran of Shakespeare & Company where past roles include:  James in Time Stands Still (nominated for Best Leading Actor Award), Mr Darcy in Christmas at Pemberley and Pride and Prejudice, George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Elyot in Private Lives,  Dorante in The Liar, Sebastian in The Tempest, Clown 2 (12 Characters) in The 39 Steps.  Joseph earned a Best Leading Actor nomination for playing Charlie Chaplin in the world premier of  The Consul, The Tramp and Americas Sweetheart at Old Castle Theatre. Other recent roles include: George in WORD PLAY at Playwrights Horizons, (NYC), Johnny in Hotel California (NYC), Coleman in I Married The Icepick Killer at Stella Adler Theatre (NYC). Feature film includes: Penny Land (Manhattan Film Festival) and Damsel by Douglas Burgdorf (Spain International Film Festival).