Margaret A. Bonds is featured at AfriClassical.com
Undine Smith Moore
Betty Jackson King
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Watkins
The Portland Mercury
Portland, Oregon
A Remarkable Journey Rewrites the Classical Music Canon
Portland Chamber Music's Anya Kalina on the Importance of African American Women Composers
By Robert Ham
THE CLASSICAL MUSIC CANON is full of dead white men. Just look
at the events schedule for most symphony orchestras or opera companies,
even in a progressively minded city like ours. That sad truth has been
ingrained in the musical world for centuries.
***
Though many were
trained at the world's most respected conservatories, names like
Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, and Margaret Bonds are still
virtually unknown to even the most dedicated appreciators of modern
classical.
That's what makes PCM's upcoming recital such a vital event for music
lovers in Portland. Taking place at the Community Music Center on
Saturday, March 5, the performance, A Remarkable Journey, will
include works by the aforementioned composers as well as pieces by Betty
Jackson King, Mary Lou Williams, and Mary Watkins. The evening will
also feature photographer and writer Intisar Abioto, known for her
curation of the Black Portlanders photo project, who will tell the life
stories of these women, many of whom had to overcome some heartbreaking
obstacles to get their music heard.
"They had to deal with so much," says Kalina. "Florence Price was the
first African American woman to have a piece performed by a major
orchestra in a major city, but had to run with her kids from an abusive
husband. Margaret Bonds was a soloist with the Chicago Symphony while
still dealing with a great deal of discrimination and fighting with
depression. It's those details that make you wonder how they were able
to write such beautiful music."
And so many of their compositions are breathtaking. Price's Adoration,
one of the pieces that PCM will be performing, has a hymn-like quality,
with long, stately chords that hang in the air like bulbous clouds
against a dark blue sky. Troubled Water, written by Bonds in 1967
and based on the spiritual "Wade in the Water," feels rooted deeply in
the ground and suffused with strongly felt agony and hard-won salvation.
***
A Remarkable Journey: Music by African American Women Composers
Portland Chamber Music at Community Music Center, 3350 SE Francis, Sat March 5, 7 pm, $10 suggested donation, all ages, pdxchambermusic.org
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