John Malveaux: BizJournals.com/Cincinnati/News: CSO breathes life into forgotten music

Thomas Wilkins

John Malveaux of 

www.MusicUNTOLD.com 

writes:

Maestro Thomas Wilkins conducted Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in historic program of neglected African American composers

https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2019/11/17/review-cso-breathes-life-into-forgotten-music-by.html?fbclid=IwAR21Is2dUxN88LlzfmgDxOL4FfpPfZS2p4dTs1oG6KEcuQvlkyAzSxnqA7I 

Cincinnati Business Courier

REVIEW: CSO breathes life into forgotten music by African American composers 

                     By Janelle Gelfand  – Courier contributor

Nov 17, 2019

The music of Florence Price is not undergoing a resurgence, remarked Thomas Wilkins, who guest conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra over the weekend in Music Hall.

“It is undergoing a discovery,” he said, following Saturday’s concert.

For listeners, the orchestra’s first-ever performance of Price’s Piano Concerto in D Minor in One Movement of 1933 was a stunning discovery. The story behind it was even more incredible. The score was discovered with a cache of her other music manuscripts just 10 years ago in an abandoned, crumbling house where the composer had lived in Illinois. Because of the barriers of being black and a woman, Price’s music largely fell into obscurity after her death in 1953.

Wilkins’ program of music by African American composers was not only a discovery, but it shone a light on an important part of America’s musical canon that deserves to be heard. The audience clearly agreed; the evening was marked by several standing ovations.

The guest conductor, whose posts include music director of the Omaha Symphony, principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and chair of orchestral conducting at Indiana University, opened with short works by contemporary composers Adolphus Hailstork and James Lee III. The program’s second half included William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American Symphony,” and Duke Ellington’s galvanizing “Harlem.”