Thursday, June 19, 2008

Penn Libraries Present Exhibit “Francis Johnson: Music Master of Early Philadelphia”

[The Music of Francis Johnson & His Contemporaries: Early 19th-Century Black Composers;
Diane Monroe, Violin; The Chestnut Brass Company and Friends; Tamara Brooks, Conductor;
Music Masters 7029-2-C (1990)]

University of Pennsylvania Libraries:
On exhibit through fall 2009
Philadelphia bandleader and composer Francis Johnson (1792-1844) holds a special place in the history of American music. Although he was a free African American, he lived in an age when racial segregation and prejudice were commonplace. Despite these obstacles, he was able to achieve extraordinary renown and respect among the elite of Philadelphia through performances of his band at balls, parades, and promenade concerts. As a result of a series of concert tours late in his life, Johnson's fame eventually extended through the Midwest and across the Atlantic to London. His music survives today in piano arrangements published during his lifetime, and the Otto E. Albrecht Music Library is pleased to exhibit a selection from the over forty pieces of Johnson sheet music in collection of the late Kurt Stein. The acquisition of this collection was funded, in part, by the Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Fund of the Savoy Company.”

The Exhibition opened in April of this year and continues through the Fall of 2009. Please email
friends@pobox.upenn.edu or phone 1-800-390-1829. Eugene Ormandy Gallery, 4th
floor (West), Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. [The African American bugler and bandleader Francis B. Johnson is profiled at AfriClassical.com] Full Post






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