Saturday, March 10, 2012

Chicago Crusader: 'Columbia College Provost recommends closing of Center'


[Florence B. Price: Concerto in One Movement, Symphony in E Minor; New Black Music Repertory Ensemble; Leslie B. Dunner, Conductor; Karen Walwyn, Piano; Albany Records 1295 (2011)]

By Barbara Wright-Pryor

Posted March 10, 2012
The Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Interim Provost of Columbia College Chicago has recommended to the college president and Board of Trustees that the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble (CJE), be discontinued. This information was revealed earlier this week by Howard Reich in two articles written for The Chicago Tribune. 

The revelation of the possible closing of CBMR, the strategic institution that archives and documents music from the African diaspora, and records, performs and disseminates the same, has caused an uproar among musicians, composers and researchers and organizations internationally. 

Currently mounting protests are the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM) established in 1919 and its more than 30 branches throughout the United States whose archival materials are housed in CBMR and whose “A Documentary History of the National Association of Negro Musicians” edited by Dr. Doris Evans McGinty was published by the Center for Black Music Research of Columbia College Chicago in 2004.

No comments:

Post a Comment