Philadelphia Inquirer: "'Black Classical Musicians in Philadelphia' tells four generations of stories...'someone should know.'"

[Elaine Mack]

Posted on Tue, Apr. 27, 2010
Philly.com/Inquirer

Separate and musical

"'Black Classical Musicians in Philadelphia' tells four generations of stories that its author says 'someone should know.'

By Peter Dobrin

Inquirer Classical Music Critic

In Philadelphia, music lovers have almost total recall of the city's proud history. They talk about Stokowski's children's concerts as if they happened yesterday, or rattle off the repertoire of North Broad Street's Metropolitan Opera House in the 1920s. The city has another musical history, though, a parallel tale of triumphs that has remained largely obscured, at least to much of the white classical music establishment.

“Philadelphia was home to impresario and civic leader Samuel London Evans, who brought violinist Itzhak Perlman, soprano/mezzo Grace Bumbry, and mime Marcel Marceau to audiences here and around the world. This was the city that embraced Sylvia Olden Lee, an important vocal coach to singers like Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman. And it was the place that nourished other great African American artists, some of whom then had to go to Europe to find unfettered acceptance.

“All these lives, and more than three dozen others, are the subject of Black Classical Musicians in Philadelphia: Oral Histories Covering Four Generations. Elaine Mack, its author, spent 1995 and 1996 interviewing her subjects - retired sopranos, principal players with major American orchestras, composers, conductors, and accompanists. She got to some at a critical moment - eager to talk, and still well enough to do so. Several have since died.

“Mack labored long to realize the book. A cellist raised in Chicago, she moved to Philadelphia in 1989 with hopes of joining the Philadelphia Orchestra. She freelanced, and started attending concerts. And she began to meet people - older African American musicians, like Curtis Institute of Music-trained pianist Blanche Burton-Lyles, who in turn introduced her to other musicians who had active careers in classical music. 'After four or five years here, it occurred to me that someone should know about these people,' said Mack, now 55. 'I had the interest, the training, and the time.'"