Dominique-René de Lerma: Great Classical Music Moments In Black America

Listen: Life with music and culture

May 2015

Ten Great Classical Music Moments in America:  Magical Moments that enraptured the public at large and became part of the fabric of the American cultural landscape.

By Kyle MacMillan

GREAT CLASSICAL MUSIC MOMENTS IN BLACK AMERICA

Dominique-René de Lerma

The May 2015 issue of Listen; Life with music and culture  listed  "Ten great classical music moments in America."   It will be noted that three of the first five of these had an important effect on Black American music:

1891 -- Opening of Carnegie Hall, New York, Tschaikovsky

1892 -- Initiation of grassroots concert series, Omaha

1892 -- Visit of Antonín Dvořák, New York

1935 -- Opening of Porgy and Bess, Boston

1939 -- Marian Anderson, Washington, Lincoln Memorial

1940 -- Opening of film, Fantasia

1958 -- Leonard Bernstein begins young people's concerts, New York

1958 -- Van Cliburn won Tschaikovsky competition, Moscow

1964 -- Première of Terry Riley's In C, San Francisco

1973 -- Kronos Quartet formed

We could not help but offer additions, which would be more appropriate to our parochial concerns, but would nonetheless be of national significance regardless:

1904 -- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in the United States

1905 -- Opening of the Schaumburg Center for Performing Arts, New York

1917 -- Harry T. Burleigh begins setting of spirituals as art songs
1919 -- Establishment of National Association of Negro Musicians

1931 -- Première of William Grant Still's Afro-American symphony, Rochester

1961 -- Leontyne Price in debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York

1971 --Release of the first four volumes of The Black composer series, Columbia Records

1972 --First issue of The black perspective in music          

1980 -- First issue of the Black music research journal

1990 -- Opening of the Archives of the Center for Black Music Research, Chicago

1998 -- First Sphinx competition, Ann Arbor

No argument would be made if others wished to have Scott Joplin, the blues, or Thomas Dorsey added, but jazz and Sisserietta Jones would still not be included.

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Dominique-René de Lerma

http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com