SILive.com: 'Anthony Turner lends his baritone to the Music at St. Albans series' Harlem homage'

[Anthony Turner]

SILive.com

Sunday, January 29, 2012

“STATEN ISLAND, NY — Anthony Turner, the Island-based baritone, will perform 'Poets of the Harlem Renaissance,' a self-made recital program, next Sunday in the Music at St. Alban’s series. He has sung these songs previously but is better known locally for other material. Turner is versatile — his teachers at Simpson and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music insisted upon it — and he sings classical repertory across many borders ( Italian, German, French and English, plus classical Spanish if there’s a call for it). 

“He has performed contemporary material, including 'Songs and Stories From Moby Dick' (1999) with composer/performer Laurie Anderson. Next week’s program is all-uptown: Musical settings of poems written by the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance, a multi-genre eruption of new music, prose, poetry, dance and drama produced by black artists in northern Manhattan from 1919 to the mid-1930s. 

“Langston Hughes (1902-1967) became the era’s pre-eminent poet. Among the others were: Arna Bontemps (1902-1973), Phillipe Thoby-Marcelin (1904-1975), Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906) and County Cullen (1903-1946). The composers include Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), William Grant Still (1895-1978), Florence Price (1887-1953), Claude McKay (1889-1949) and Cecil Cohen (1894-1967). Turner will also sing settings by two contemporary composers, Charles S. Brown (b. 1940) and Robert Owens (b. 1925) by way of suggesting that the “impetus of the Harlem Renaissance is still powerful.” 

‘POETS OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE’ 

Baritone Anthony Turner accompanied by pianist Kenneth Hamrick 

Where 

St. Albans Episcopal Church at 76 St. Alban’s Pl., Eltingville . 

When 

3:30 p.m. Feb. 5 

How much 

Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for senior citizens and students. 

More information 

Call 718-984-7756 or visit MusicatSaintAlbans.org 

[Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), William Grant Still (1895-1978) and Florence Price (1887-1953) are profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works List for each by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com]