Arion 68093 (1990)
Albany Records Troy1430 (2013)
Greetings:
The NAACP Image Awards telecast does not present a category for Classical Music. The NAACP Image Awards telecast significantly contributes to a
distorted media image of African Americans that denies our youth a picture of
their full human potential and helps justify neglected recognition for many
worthy living and working Classical Music artists.
Music consists of three types: Folk, Popular, and Classical. While
African American history and achievements are thoroughly documented and
publicized in Popular and Folk Music, the opposite is true in the European
tradition of Classical Music. An overwhelming majority of African Americans are
mis-educated to believe Classical Music is ‘white music’ and they voluntarily
exclude themselves from appreciation, participation, and benefits in a refined
and cerebral segment of society. Ever since Le Chevalier de Saint Georges poised
his violin to play at the Court of Louis XV1 in Eighteenth Century France, the African
presence has been felt in the world of Classical Music. Most Americans,
including the college educated, are unaware that around 1830 free and literate African
American and mixed race musicians organized a Negro Philharmonic Society in New
Orleans.
I am aware that Soprano Kathleen Battle received the NAACP Lifetime
Achievement Award in 1999 and Jessye Norman was honored at the 2013 National
Convention. However, a sustained image of African Americans in Classical Music
does not exist on terrestrial radio, newspaper, television, cable, or magazine.
Afrocentric Sounds Radio, Afrocentric Voices Radio and www.AfriClassical.com website are
sustaining internet resources for education and appreciation.
The foremost living and working American classical composer is George Theophilus Walker
who, in 1996, became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in
classical music. George Walker is 91 years of age. His 90th birthday was not
formally celebrated by any American or African American organization or covered
by African American media such as Ebony or Essence Magazine. Jim Svejda of KUSC
Classical Radio 91.5 FM Radio or www.kusc.org
on the Internet will interview George Walker for two hours, Thursday, December
5, 2013, at 9:00 PM (PST.
This is a request to add a category for Classical Music within the annual
NAACP Image Awards telecast and to consider George Walker for an NAACP Lifetime
Achievement Award. Your earliest consideration will be greatly appreciated to
benefit all of humanity. Please let me know if I may be helpful to this request.
Thanks
John Malveaux
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