William Grant Still (1895-1978) is profiled at AfriClassical.com,
which features a comprehensive Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de
Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.
Arizona Daily Sun
Charly Spining - Special to the Sun
January 18, 2015
The Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra will be breaking boundaries this
Friday evening in a thematically constructed program that has become a
trademark for FSO Artistic Director and Conductor Elizabeth Schulze.
The
Flagstaff Symphony’s presentation of “Breaking Boundaries” takes place
at Ardrey Memorial Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 23 at 7:30 p.m. and
tickets are available at www.flagstaffsymphony.org and from NAU Central
Ticketing at www.nau.edu/cto.
Schulze has programmed a “Festive
Overture” by the esteemed, though often unrecognized, Afro-American
composer William Grant Still, as well as a new work for piano and
orchestra by Northern Arizona University professor of music theory and
composition Bruce Reiprich.
The program is rounded out with a
classic symphonic work drawn from more traditional orchestral
repertoire, Beethoven’s Sixth “Pastoral” Symphony, considered to be
groundbreaking and highly innovative when first introduced to the
Viennese public just over two centuries ago.
William Grant Still,
often called the “Dean” of Afro-American composers, was born in
Mississippi in 1895 and died in Los Angeles in 1978. His long career was
highlighted by many notable achievements, including international
recognition as a composer of serious concert music, a conductor of major
American orchestras, and the first Afro-American composer to have an
opera performed by a notable opera company.
In 1944, the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra sponsored a competition during its
centennial jubilee celebration, and Still took first place with a
“Festive Overture,” a spirited and effective eight-minute “opener” that
typically combines the structure and characteristics of European models
with melodic and rhythmic elements drawn from his own heritage.
Still’s
daughter, Judith, has been a longtime resident of Flagstaff and has
pursued a lifetime mission to preserve, archive, maintain copyrights,
and encourage performance of the substantial musical legacy left by her
father. In a recent conversation she reflected on the goals of her
foundation “William Grant Still Music,” based here in Flagstaff. She
also spoke of the overt racism that was a part of her family’s southern
heritage, and the frustration in achieving adequate recognition and
appreciation for the efforts of many minority creative artists, as much
in the present day as in the past.
A secondary goal of the Still
Music foundation is the future establishment of an educational program
for schools, as one means of countering those attitudes of indifference
and the general lack of awareness of her father’s significant
contributions to the cultural heritage of this country. William Grant
Still’s “Afro-American Symphony,” one of his better known works, was
performed by the FSO a number of years ago.
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