Pianist Everett Jones and Dayton Philharmonic Perform 3 Works of William Grant Still Dec. 4 & 6

[Dr. Everett N. Jones III, piano]

Miami Valley & Good Samaritan Hospitals Classical Series
Dayton Philharmonic
Thursday, December 4 & Saturday, December 6 ~ 2008
Schuster Center, 8 pm
TAKE NOTE, Mead Theatre, 7pm
STILL Festive Overture
DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 7
STILL Kaintuck', Poem for Piano and Orchestra
STILL Afro-American Symphony
NEAL GITTLEMAN conductor
EVERETT JONES Piano
HERBERT MARTIN narrator
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William Grant Still’s Festive Overture opens this program. The Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra then performs Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7, which many consider “the pinnacle of his achievement as a composer.” Still’s Kaintuck’, a Poem for Piano and Orchestra follows. The program concludes with Still’s Afro-American Symphony, with its blues inflections and energetic cross-rhythms “a landmark in the history of American music as the first symphonic work by an African-American composer performed by a major orchestra.” [William Grant Still (1895-1978) is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

Dr. Everett N. Jones III is a well-known pianist, composer, and lecturer. One critic wrote, “Jones has a muscular percussive technique…with technique to spare, the Liszt etudes were tossed off with ease…” Jones has pioneered performances of William Grant Still and George Walker at many colleges and universities. He’s worked with the past director of the 2003 William Grant Still Festival (Richard Fields) and is the director of the 2008 William Grant Still Festival at Wilberforce University. Jones will record some new music for William Grant Still Music this coming season. Dr. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Piano at Wilberforce University, where he teaches Applied Piano, Piano Literature, Group Piano, Counterpoint, Music Theory, Music History, and Form and Analysis.

Herbert Woodward Martin has spent the last three decades editing, performing and promoting the works of Dayton native Paul Laurence Dunbar. He has just finished editing The Complete Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar to be published by Ohio University Press. Martin is a poet in his own right, having published eight volumes of his own poetrty, the most recent book being Inscribing My Name published by Kent State University Press. His sixth volume, The Log of The Vigilante, won the Edwin Mellen First Prize for Poetry in 1999. He is Professor Emeritus of English of The University of Dayton.
Dayton Philharmonic
Everett Jones, Piano
Herbert Woodward Martin, Narrator
Festive Overture
Kaintuck',Poem for Piano and Orchestra
Afro-American Symphony