Columbus State Community College Plays Works of William Grant Still in Free Concert June 1

[William Grant Still (Photo is the sole property of William Grant Still Music, and is used with permission.]

The Columbus dispatch

Dispatch.com

Community-college ensembles play way to big stage

Thursday, May 27, 2010 6:34 AM

By Bill Mayr

FOR THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

“After a decade's worth of effort, musicians from Columbus State Community College will get the chance to perform on a stage once filled by John Philip Sousa. The Tuesday concert at the Southern Theatre will serve as a rite of passage for the college's four performance groups - Chorus Columbus State, the Gospel Vocal Ensemble, the Woodwind Ensemble and the Concert Band.

“The concert will be the first for the groups in the theater. 'I've been working on this for 10 years, to get us into the Southern,' said Thomas Lloyd, who teaches music history at the college and directs the Concert Band and Woodwind Ensemble. Lloyd sought the Southern for a pair of reasons. 'It does lend us a degree of credibility,' he said. 'And it's a wonderful venue.' The four groups will perform some classics of band and choral music.”

“The band will also play a movement from Afro-American Symphony by William Grant Still, a mid-20th-century composer whose career included stints in Ohio.” “The Woodwind Ensemble will play Folk Suite No. 1 by Still. The Southern Theatre concert is a milestone for Columbus State, but the performance groups have built momentum in recent years. The gospel group, for example, had 18 public performances during winter quarter. It has appeared in prisons; at festivals; and at venues such as the Statehouse, the King Arts Complex and the Lincoln Theatre, Easton said.”

[William Grant Still (1895-1978) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, where a complete Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University Conservatory is found.]

Comment by email:

Bill, Thanks for the additional PR. Best wishes, Thomas Lloyd