[Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor]
Celebrating BLACK HISTORY MONTH with outstanding singers &
instrumentalists
Saint
Michael's College is presenting a concert of outstanding musicians
playing works by African-Anglo musician Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in
recognition of Black History Month on the 100th anniversary of
Coleridge-Taylor's death. The concert, free and open to the public,
with a free will offering suggested, will be Tuesday, February 7,
at 7:30 p.m. in the Saint Michael's College Chapel.
The
concert is organized by Dr. William Tortolano, Saint Michael's
emeritus professor of music, organist, and author of Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor: Anglo-Black Composer, 1875-1912.
Coleridge-Taylor's work, The Song of Hiawatha, based
on Longfellow's poem, was just as popular as Handel's Messiah
in Victorian England," Dr. Tortolano said. "He inspired the
Harlem Renaissance in America. Coleridge-Taylor, himself, was so
inspired by American Negro Music and poetry that he in turn through
musical compositions became a leader and shining light to an American
Negro cultural renaissance," Dr. Tortolano said. He became an
associate of such creative African-Americans as W.E.B. Dubois, Booker
T. Washington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and others.
The program
of music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor will include:
- The Essex
Children's Choir, directed by Constance Price, singing works from
"Othello"
- The Vermont Youth Orchestra Chorus,
60 voices, directed by Dr. Jeffrey Buettner, singing Choral Anthem,
"Lift up Your Heads"
- Vocal soloists singing songs
from "Hiawatha":
Jessica Allen, soprano
George
Cordes, bass-baritone, member for six seasons of the New York
City Opera.
Wayne Dobbs, tenor, who sang at the Royal Opera
House
- Pianists:
Elizabeth Cordes
Natasha
Koval-Paden
Annemieke Spoelstra
- Organist: Dr.
William Tortolano
- The Tortolano String Quartet,
performing "Fantasiestucke, op. 5, for String Quartet"
George
Cordes has an extensive professional career in opera, having sung
major roles for six seasons with the New York City Opera, at the
Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Metropolitan Opera in the
Parks; Houston Grand Opera, PBS's Live from Lincoln Center. He also
has appeared with the opera companies of Santa Fe, St. Louis, Kansas
City, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Columbus, and Cleveland, and other
regional houses.
The Essex Children's Choir celebrates
its 25th anniversary this year. Their Twelfth Night Celebration is
musical highlight of the area. They perform widely and have been
guests on National Public Radio's "A Prairie Home
Companion."
Natasha Koval-Paden, well known in
Vermont, studied at the Eastman School of Music and later Julliard.
She has performed widely at home and abroad, and with the Tchaikovsky
Chamber Orchestra. She is an affiliate artist with the music
department of Middlebury College.
Annemieke Spoelstra
was Music Student of the Year in the Netherlands in 1997, and in
2001, she was a finalist in Paris at the international Nadia and Lili
Boulanger competition. Today she teaches and performs as a soloist in
Vermont and with different instrumentalists and vocalists, and has a
highly reviewed recording.
The
Tortolano String Quartet includes all three Tortolano children,
each one a professional musician, and grandson William, also a
professional. Members are William Tortolano III, violin; Allegra
Tortolano Havens, violin; Maryann Estabrook Tortolano, viola; and
William Tortolano, IV, violin cello.
[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is featured at AfriClassical.com. The
Samuel Taylor-Coleridge Foundation, www.sctf.org.uk
is deeply involved in the observance of this year's Centennial of
the composer's death.]
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