Music in the Pavilion Series
Presented by the University of Pennsylvania's Music Department, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Otto E. Albrecht Music Library.
- Concert
Music in the Pavilion: A Song's Journey from Haiti and Back
Come hear the tale of an enduringly popular song from Haiti "Lisette quitté la plaine," interwoven with anthem parodies, folk songs, and solo-piano pieces.
Registration is required for guests outside of the Penn community and encouraged for all participants.
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April 17, 2026, 6:15pm -
8:30pm
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Kislak Center Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion, 6th Floor, Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center
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Open to the Public
Hosted by: Kislak Center
Jean Bernard Cerin, baritone; Michele Kennedy, soprano; and Nicholas Mathew, piano, tell the tale, across centuries and continents, of Lisette quitté la plaine, an enduringly popular song from Haiti. Interweaving its many versions with rediscovered arias, anthem parodies, folk songs, and solo-piano pieces, they illuminate how Haitian music reflected and fueled the story of Black liberation across the world.
The concert will be preceded by a screening of the short documentary Lisette (2022), which traces the text’s evolving significance from its early popularity in colonial St. Domingue and France to its use as a symbol of Black pride and cultural heritage in modern Haiti and Louisiana.
This event is hosted in connection with the exhibition The Time to Right All Wrongs: France, Haiti, and Philadelphia in a Revolutionary Age, on view in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center from February 26 to September 4, 2026, and presented as part of America 250 at Penn.
Plan Your Visit
This event is free and open to the public. Penn faculty, staff, and students must swipe their PennCard for access. Visitors from outside the Penn community must present a current, valid government or school-issued photo ID that contains an expiration date. Find more information to plan your visit.
Featured Image:”A View of Cap Francois, St Domingue,” from William Woodis Harvey, Sketches of Hayti (London: Seeley, 1827) (Old Library, Queen’s College, Cambridge)
Event Series
The Lisette Project
The Lisette Project brings performers, scholars, and audiences together to explore the rich world of Haitian classical music. Their current work centers on Lisette quitté la plaine, the oldest published song in Haitian Creole. Founded in 2021 by artistic director Jean Bernard Cerin, they bring music and history to life through film, lectures, concerts, scholarly resources, and new recordings in collaboration with universities, concert presenters, museums, archives and television networks, around the world.
Pictured from left to right: Michelle Kennedy, Nicholas Mathew, and Jean Bernard Cerin. Photo credit: Tara Layman Photography.
