Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Biography of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges Enters Second Printing

[The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow; Gabriel Banat; Pendragon Press; Hillsdale, New York (2006)]

Joseph de Bologne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799), was the Afro-French composer, violinist and conductor who won fame as France's finest fencer before launching his career in classical music. He is profiled extensively at AfriClassical.com, where a dozen audio samples of his music can be heard.

The most authoritative biography of Saint-Georges in English is: The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow; Pendragon Press (2006) by the noted violinist Gabriel Banat. The book has continued to receive very favorable reviews from numerous publications, and is held in high regard by the Saint-Georges specialists upon whom we rely. It is the first English biography we consult when questions about the composer arise.

The New York Times published an article entitled “A Swashbuckling Violinist, Fresh From The 1700s”, by Roberta Hershenson, on January 6, 2008: “Mr. Banat, who had an acclaimed solo career before becoming a 23-year member of the New York Philharmonic, considers Saint-Georges the first significant black classical composer. Now retired, Mr. Banat, 81, has spent years researching and writing about Saint-Georges, who made music in the court of Marie Antoinette and went on to lead a regiment of black soldiers in the French Revolution.”

Consequently, we were pleased to receive this news from the author today: “I am happy to be able to tell you that having sold out the first, a second printing with all the mistakes corrected at last, will be ready in a couple of weeks.” AfriClassical congratulates Gabriel Banat on the well-deserved success of his scholarly account of the life and music of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges. It is readily available from major book dealers, including Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.








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