John Malveaux: April 23, 2017 Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra elevated LA and Holman UMC to the U.S. capitol for Black Classical Music

Janise White

John Malveaux of 

www.MusicUNTOLD.com  

writes:

April 23, 2017 Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra (AACMSO) elevated Los Angeles and Holman United Methodist Church to the United States capitol for preservation of Black Classical Music. The United States premiere concert was noteworthy proof for the cover of Earl Ofari Hutchinson’s book IT’S OUR MUSIC, TOO-The Black Experience In Classical Music on display at the concert.

Co-founder and conductor of AACMSO, Janise White, delivered a triple double in basketball jargon. She was the conductor for the program except for James Price Johnson Yamekraw (Black Rhapsody). Fernando Pullum conducted as Janise White represented a wide spectrum of Harlem piano playing. Janise White was the researcher for the entire program and most impressive to me, she instigated the publishing of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Symphony in A minor during a past visit to the Royal College of Music Library in London. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was received by President Roosevelt at the White House in 1904, Dr.  Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje, author and retired chairperson of Ethnomusicology at UCLA, encouraged the research of Janise White in past years. Dr. DjeDje was present for this important occasion and we chatted before start of the concert.

To my colleagues and friends in multiple music organizations working to elevate diversity in classical music and opera, please remember William Grant Still’s belief “Together we rise, or not at all.”  Please see pic of program and pic of Maestro Janise White