WILLIS PATTERSON
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance
Sept. 10, 2020
ANN
ARBOR—Scholars, composers and performers from across the U.S. will come
together for a virtual event that will celebrate the upcoming 90th
birthday of legendary bass singer, U-M alumnus and professor emeritus
Willis Patterson.
The
African American Music Conference, hosted by the University of
Michigan's School of Music, Theatre & Dance, will take place
virtually Sept. 18-20. The event is free and open to the public.
Patterson,
who will be in attendance, was the first African American faculty
member to join SMTD, after two prior professorships at Southern
University (Louisiana) and Virginia State College. Hired in 1968, he
taught in the department of voice for more than three decades, and also
served as the associate dean for 20 of those years.
According
to voice professor Louise Toppin, who organized the conference,
Patterson is well known for his singing, but also for his teaching,
mentorship and work toward advancing racial equity both at U-M and on
the national stage.
"I
am organizing this conference, in part, to expand upon Willis
Patterson's work—he organized events like this back in the '80s at U-M
and it was really groundbreaking," said Toppin, who attended Willis'
first conferences as a student and has organized many like them in
recent years. "He was an incredibly important person not only in U-M's
history, but in U.S. history—he broke barriers and really saw it in
himself to make more room at the table for other people that looked like
him."
In
addition to being a tireless advocate for the school's community of
color, he also made enormous strides in promoting the inclusion of music
by African Americans in both the traditional vocal canon and in
mainstream culture.
In
1963, when he heard that NBC television would be recording a new
version of Menotti's opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" to air during
the Christmas season, Patterson wrote to the station to protest the
customary racist practice of casting a white man in blackface to sing
the bass role of Balthazar. NBC followed Patterson's advice and invited
him to New York to audition alongside several other black bass singers.
Patterson ended up winning the role, and the re-airing of the production
every December for the next three years helped to increase his profile
as a performer.
For
the first time since their taped performance, Toppin will reunite the
original 1963 cast of the production as part of the conference at 4 p.m.
Sept. 19. The live conversation with Patterson, Richard Cross and Kurt
Yaghjian will be moderated by Arthur White, Michigan Opera Theater's
Director of External Affairs.
The
conference will include a mixture of pre-recorded and live
conversations featuring some of the most prominent African American
composers and scholars in the U.S.—both younger and older—who will
discuss Patterson's pioneering work in the fields of jazz and African
American concert repertoire.
During
opening night, Sept. 18, the Bentley Historical Library will celebrate
the arrival of the Willis Patterson papers as part of the university's
archive. Patterson will join Bentley Director Terrence McDonald, U-M
President Mark Schlissel, U-M Vice Provost Robert Sellers and Toppin for
a virtual conversation at 5:30 p.m.
"The
extraordinary breadth of Professor Patterson's career—as performer,
professor, university administrator, scholar of and leader in African
American music—make his collection an invaluable addition to the
holdings of the Bentley Historical Library," McDonald said.
The
new collection, which contains more than seven linear feet of boxes
including correspondence, research, photos and news clippings, focuses
primarily on Patteron's professional and musical career from 1952 to
1999.
Another
highlight of the conference will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 19. A
"Facebook watch party" of a recent public workshop reading that SMTD
presented of "Bre'r Rabbit and the Tar Baby," the first of three stories
in Nkeiru Okoye and Carman Moore's "Tales from the Briar Patch." The
workshop premiere was directed by Toppin in February 2020 and was read
by a cast of five African American students.
"While
there is a historical component to this conference, I am excited about
presenting this contemporary opera and having a forum for people to
engage with and discuss it," Toppin said. "Projects like this are an
example of the continued influence that Patterson still has at SMTD and
beyond."
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