CAMBRIDGE -- Three leading African-American musicians collaborated to make an occasion of the opening concert of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra Sunday afternoon -- music director Isaiah Jackson, Boston Symphony Orchestra harpist Ann Hobson Pilot, and composer Ken Amis.
Amis is also prominent as a virtuoso tubist; he plays with Empire Brass. In his ''Fantasia on a Row," he has crafted a modest little winner of a piece. It is based on a 12-tone row, but not on 12-tone philosophy or dogma.
The music begins on a unison C and almost but not quite ends in pure C-major, until an unexpected note steals in like a shadow. The row is a melody; it generates harmony; it serves as a ground bass. It is almost constantly present and undergoes various adventures, passing through various moods. The performance under Jackson had some wrinkles that a little more rehearsal might have ironed out, but the audience responded generously to composer and piece.
Pilot, looking regal in purple and ivory silk with a matching choker, played Ravel's luscious ''Introduction & Allegro" and William Grant Still's ''Ennaga" with authority, flair, poetry, and imagination. She may have come to the BSO in 1969, but she still sounds in her prime. Her tone has presence and color, and her rhythm has spine. Still was the first prominent African-American composer of opera and symphonic music. ''Ennaga" is his tuneful tribute to Ganda harp music of Uganda. There is no actual African music in it, but you can hear the cadences of spirituals behind it -- ''Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" in the first movement, for example.
Jackson and the orchestra provided strong support. After intermission they came up with something unusual, which is standard operating procedure for this group -- the First Symphony by Charles Gounod, a composer best known for his operas. The young Gounod, still in his 30s, had learned his lessons from the Austrian and German tradition from Haydn through Schumann, but he couldn't help being a Frenchman too, and therein lies the music's charm. The playing was lively and fun, and Jackson's arms danced like noodles in water at full boil.