Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) is
profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works List and a Bibliography by Prof.
Dominique-René de Lerma, www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.
Ingrid Fischer Bellman writes:
The Ronen Chamber
Ensemble of Indianapolis, IN, will present a concert Feb. 16, 2015, at the
University of Indianapolis, featuring music by African-American composers,
The concert will include two pieces by David Baker, head of
the jazz department at Indiana University in Bloomington. Trained as a
classical musician, Baker has his feet planted as firmly in classical music as
he does in jazz.
The Ronen was co-founded
by David Bellman, principal clarinetist with the Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra, and his wife Ingrid Fischer-Bellman, an ISO cellist. The ensemble
specializes in music for winds and strings.
Fischer-Bellman met Baker through Janos Starker, her cello
teacher at IU. One of the Baker pieces, Duo for clarinet and cello, was
commissioned by the Ronen and first played at a concert in 1988.
The ensemble also will
play an excerpt from Baker's Sonata for cello and piano. Other pieces on the
program are:
·
Undine Smith Moore's
Afro-American Suite for flute, cello and piano.
·
Piano pieces by three
African-America women composers Julia Perry, Betty Jackson King and Margaret
Bonds.
·
Anthony Kelley’s Grist for the Mill for flute, clarinet,
cello and percussion, originally commissioned by the Mellarme Chamber Players.
“The Ronen Chamber
Ensemble is really eager to pay tribute to the beautiful music written by all
these composers,” says Fischer-Bellman, who programmed the concert and is in
charge of Ronen’s educational outreach program.
The concert will be performed
at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 in the Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center on the University
of Indianapolis campus. Parts of the concert also are being performed as an
educational outreach program at two Indianapolis high schools with largely
African-American and Hispanic student bodies.
One is Crispus Attucks,
from which Baker, a native of Indianapolis, graduated when it was the state’s
leading African-American high school. It now is a medical magnet high school in
the Indianapolis Public Schools system.
The other is Ben Davis
High School, on the Indianapolis far west side, which has a large
African-American and Hispanic student body. There is no charge for any of these
programs.
For more information
check the ensemble website: www.ronenchamber.org, or visit us on the Ronen Chamber Ensemble Facebook page.
