The Barzillai Lew Project: A Concert of Modern Revolutionary Music

This February, history and music come together in The Barzillai Lew Project: A Concert of Modern Revolutionary Music, a powerful evening honoring one of the region’s most remarkable — and often overlooked — Revolutionary-era figures.

Presented by the Karayorgis Ensemble, the concert reimagines the legacy of Barzillai Lew (1743–1822) through modern jazz and improvised music, connecting Revolutionary history to 20th-century musical innovators and beyond.

Who Was Barzillai Lew?
Barzillai Lew was a free Black man born in Groton, Massachusetts, who became a celebrated fifer and drummer during the American Revolutionary War. He enlisted in May 1775 with Captain John Ford’s Company of the 27th Regiment out of Chelmsford and fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill alongside roughly three dozen other soldiers of African descent.

Lew spent much of his life in what is now the Greater Lowell area, including Pepperell, Chelmsford, and Dracut. After the war, he purchased farmland in Dracut (now part of Lowell), raised a family of 13 children, and became a respected member of the community. He is buried at the Clay Pit Cemetery in Lowell, just off Pawtucket Boulevard.

As a musician of exceptional talent, Lew is considered one of the earliest documented Black American musicians in U.S. military history.