John Malveaux: Music by Black Composers Violin Volume I to be published in October

John Malveaux of 

www.MusicUNTOLD.com 

sends this release:

Rachel Barton Pine Foundation's Music by Black

Composers Project:

In October 2018, the not-for-profit Rachel Barton Pine Foundation’s Music by Black Composers project will take a monumental step toward showing the world #BlackisClassical, with a host of assets including the publication of the FIRST in a series of books of music exclusively by Black classical composers from around the world. 

Here's why:

Composers of African descent have created masterful classical music for centuries, yet they continue to be underrepresented in concert programming and in classical music education, silencing a rich vein of works from global consciousness and obscuring the true face of classical music. 

As young musicians seldom have the opportunity to study and perform classical music by Black composers, artists and enthusiasts of color struggle to participate in an art form in which they do not appear to belong, perpetuating a lack of diversity on stage and among audiences.

Over the past two decades, the not-for-profit Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) Foundation’s Music by Black Composers (MBC) project has uncovered 900+ works by over 300 black composers from Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America, from the 18th to the 21st centuries. Most of this wonderful repertoire is out of print or only in manuscript.

Our educational series kicks off with the October publication of MBC Violin Volume I. Each orchestral instrument will be the subject of multiple volumes, which will be graded by difficulty from beginner to advanced concerto-level playing and will include biographies for every composer, role model profiles, and feature articles about Black participation in classical music. Subsequent publications will include works for school orchestra and chamber ensembles.

Some MBC composers include:

Ignatius Sancho (1729 – 1780) – Born a slave, Sancho was the first Black composer in the world to have his music published and the first Black British person to vote in a British election. 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) – Coleridge-Taylor's “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” was one of the most popular pieces of music in England for many decades.

Florence Price (1887-1953) – Born in Little Rock, AR, in 1933 Price became the first African-American woman to have her composition performed by a major orchestra.

Jessie Montgomery (1981-) – A violinist and composer, Montgomery is affiliated with The Sphinx Organization. She received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Composer’s Apprentice Award and has a Bachelor’s from Julliard and a Master’s from New York University. 

The MBC publications are part of a multi-pronged approach to spread awareness of and access to music by Black composers. The MBC website currently features a directory of more than 150 living Black composers, for use by performers, researchers, and those wishing to diversify their commissioning. In addition, MBC has joined forces with the Orchestral Music by Black Composers (OMBC) project, founded by Ashley Jackson and James Blachly, to build an online database providing information about symphonic works written by Black composers worldwide. MBC is also developing a coloring book of the 40 most prominent Black composers as well as a timeline poster featuring more than 250 composers.  

 

The Music by Black Composers project was conceived by the award winning, Billboard chart topping violinist, Rachel Barton Pine (www.rachelbartonpine.com) who performs with the world's leading orchestras and has recorded 37 acclaimed albums.  She became the first living composer to be published as part of Carl Fischer’s “Masters Collection” series with the release of “The Rachel Barton Pine Collection.” Her performances are heard on NPR and stations around the globe and she has appeared on The Today Show four times, CBS Sunday Morning, Bloomberg Television, CNN, PBS NewsHour and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and papers around the world. In addition to the MBC project, her RBP  Foundation assists young artists through its Instrument Loan Program, Grants for Education and Career, and Global HeartStrings  which supports musicians in developing countries.

For more information, please visit rbpfoundation.org, musicbyblackcomposers.org, and RachelBartonPine.com.