Adolphus Hailstork 80th Birthday Celebration News:
John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:
Dr. Michael Cooper lecture March 24, 2021 at the Royal Irish Academy of Music titled “Black Feminism, Margaret Bonds, and the ‘Credo’ of W.E.B. Du Bois” was recorded for posterity. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iyk4ProIu4
Upcoming events to share - Streaming in April!
In the year of the Wigmore Hall’s 120th anniversary, Artistic Director, John Gilhooly has announced that the African Concert Series, spearheaded by the Nigerian-Romanian pianist Rebeca Omordia will be joining the Wigmore Hall’s family of partners. This is an enormous tribute to Rebeca, whose inspiring leadership over the last three years, has brought together brilliant talents from the wide diaspora of African art music, which forms a bridge between Western classical music and traditional African music. Her early CD ‘Ekele’ for Heritage, featuring the piano music of a number of composers from Nigeria, including Ayo Bankole, Fred Onovwerosuoke and Christian Onyeji, proved a hit and prefigured the success of the concert series.
Rebeca Omordia is an award-winning pianist of Nigerian-Romanian heritage, being born and raised in Romania during the Ceaușescu regime. After graduating from the National Music University in Bucharest in 2006 she came to this country with a scholarship to study for a Masters at Birmingham Conservatoire, where she won the Delius Prize. It was here that she met up with Julian Lloyd Webber and soon began a very successful partnership with him from 2012 till 2014, performing together at Wigmore Hall and Kings Place.
She also collaborated with cellists Raphael Wallfisch, Jiaxin Lloyd Webber and Razvan Suma (with whom she toured the UK and Romania), Chineke!, saxophonist Amy Dickson and pianist Mark Bebbington with whom she recorded piano music by Ralph Vaughan Williams for two pianos, which reached no. 3 in the UK Classical Music Chart.
Antony Barlow, Press and PR
Richard S. Ginell on April 11, 2021
It’s not news anymore that the day has come for a major emergence of neglected Black composers into the mainstream of concert life. Some of this was underway before George Floyd’s death kicked the Black Lives Matter movement into a higher gear, but now it has become a bandwagon, with one orchestra and small group after another adding historic figures like Florence Price and Julius Eastman and contemporary voices like Jessie Montgomery to their pandemic streams. And a convenient way to get a basic handle on the history of classical music by Black composers is available in one box of 10 CDs.
Let’s go back to the 1970s when some major record labels were still fronted by enlightened visionaries like Goddard Lieberson, who came out of retirement in 1973 to resume his old position as president of Columbia Records after the firing of Clive Davis. It was in Lieberson’s second term that Columbia Masterworks joined up with Afro-American Music Opportunities Organization (AAMOA) to start the Black Composers Series, a sequence of albums that would give major-label exposure to a whole lineup of neglected figures.
Columbia spared nothing to give the project every chance to succeed, enlisting top-flight orchestras — the London Symphony in five of the albums, the Detroit and Baltimore Symphonies and Helsinki Philharmonic in the others — the Juilliard Quartet, violinists Jaime Laredo, Sanford Allen (the first Black member of the New York Philharmonic), and Aaron Rosand, cellist Janos Starker, and the label’s roster of producers and engineers. Paul Freeman, one of just a few working Black conductors of classical music, served as artistic director and conductor. The first four albums in the series came out in March 1974, four more followed in June 1975, and the original plan was to keep on releasing four albums per year through 1978.
Alas, something fell through — funding? disappointing sales? — and only one more album emerged in January 1978, delayed for two years after the recording date (Lieberson had retired for the second and final time in 1975). The series had a rather short shelf life; the last five albums went out of print before the decade was out, while the first four hung on for a while into the 1980s until they, too, got the deletion axe. Decades later, Freeman rerecorded several of the pieces with his Chicago Sinfonietta for Cedille’s smaller-scale, three-volume African Heritage Symphonic series, but otherwise, most of the music returned to obscurity.
It’s hard to imagine any of the three “major” corporate labels coming up with such an adventurous, systematic project today. But Sony — the current owners of the Columbia archive — did the next best thing two years ago by reissuing all nine Black Composers Series albums in a handsome, compact, inexpensive box, adding as a bonus another Freeman album, Symphonic Spirituals, made after the project was over for Columbia’s red pop label.
What Columbia uncovered here is a little-used, not as carefully maintained highway running parallel to the main expressway of the classical-music repertory, passing through mostly the same neighborhoods, used by the same vehicles (symphony orchestras, choruses, a string quartet, etc.). Now and then, the highway veers off to serve some urban neighborhoods that the main expressway bypasses, but always remaining parallel.
Some musicians and writers have insisted upon calling jazz “Black classical music” — always an aggrandizing misnomer to me; jazz is jazz, and there’s nothing wrong with that — but this box contains literally, and more accurately, Black classical music if we accept the form as music with European roots composed by Black musicians. Not much could be said to be ahead of its time, even the most gnarled modernist pieces — nor out of its time.
Inevitably, the set launches with the first historically significant Black composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whose delightful Symphony No. 1 is a slice of Haydn classical language that could grace any socially-distanced chamber orchestra program. The Juilliard Quartet performs the Chevalier’s polite String Quartet No. 1 in C; the Symphonie Concertante is given a lush orchestral treatment by Freeman and the LSO; period-performance practices had not yet taken a vise-like grip on all 18th century music performances in the 1970s. Another historical figure based in Europe, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, is represented at his most Romantic in an aria from Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast and at his most light-hearted in the Danse Negre from his African Suite.
As you go through the set, you can find several worthy pieces that can be easily punched into the general repertory by alert impresarios. George Walker’s Trombone Concerto wears well after a number of listenings, a viable modernist work of considerable contrast and a winning finale (unlike the disagreeably severe Piano Concerto), a gift to curious trombone soloists faced with a dearth of solo material. José Mauricio Nunes Garcia’s Requiem Mass is good enough to substitute for Mozart’s well-trodden Requiem — try a blindfold listening test on people and see who they think wrote it — as Walker’s increasingly-played Lyric for Strings could stand in for Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.
Roque Cordero wrote his Violin Concerto for Allen, who revels in its abstract, twisting, turning lines, while on the other hand, José White Lafitte’s Violin Concerto is a virtuoso piece straight out of the middle of the 19th century, done to a spectacular turn by Rosand. A greatly underrated violinist with an unshakable dark-colored tone, Rosand, who was white and Jewish, has written that this was the only record that he was allowed to make for Columbia mainly because more famous violinists on the label didn’t want to learn the Concerto due to its technical difficulties. He did not mention racism as a reason.
Named in the memory of Professor Emeritus Robert Jordan, who taught at the School of Music from 1980 to 2004, the festival will feature solo and collaborative piano music written by diverse/underrepresented composers, including women, African Americans and members of the LGTBQ community.
All festival events will be virtual and free to the public, but online registration is required to receive Zoom links. The registration link is docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeMjTpQFmbt0AnjHzgRp3y9kxcTxgmQW638LwZxfOuvfkX4Kw/viewform
Fr. Sean Duggan, SUNY Fredonia School of Music professor, said he considers Nyaho, who he knew when both were living in Louisiana, to be a wonderful pianist and musician who has been doing the musical world a great service by bringing together wonderful piano compositions by various underrepresented composers.
“His excellent five-volume anthology published by Oxford University Press, ‘Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora,’ is going to be a featured part of his presentation in our festival,” said Duggan, coordinator of the Piano Area.
Reyahn King et al. |
When the Handel and Haydn Society began in 1815, America was still four decades away from abolishing slavery. H+H would play concerts to support the Union Army, celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation and mourn the death of Abraham Lincoln. But H+H’s upcoming world premiere of a newly commissioned work by composer Jonathan Woody marks a profound milestone.
“The source material (for the commission) came from a formerly enslaved Black man, and I have a personal connection to that as a descendant of enslaved people in the United States,” Woody told the Herald. “It’s important to tell this story on a stage like Handel and Haydn’s stage.”
“Handel and Haydn was founded in 1815 in a United States that was still in the practice of enslaving Black bodies,” he added ahead of the April 18 and April 20 streaming concert. “For an organization to have lived that long and to find itself in the 21st century programming work by a living Black composer based on the work by a Black composer from the time of slavery, I think there is something special about that and important about that. I wish it had happened sooner, but I’m glad it’s happening now.”
Woody, who is also an in-demand soloist as a singer, composed his commission, Suite for String Orchestra, based on works by Charles Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780). Born on a ship carrying enslaved people, Sancho was sold into slavery in a Spanish colony in South America. As an adult, Sancho lived in England as a free man, becoming an abolitionist, composer and business owner, and is considered the first Black man to vote in a British election and the first person of African descent to publish classical music.
“I find his life very fascinating, especially the fact that he was the first Black man to have voting rights in a British parliamentary election because he was a property owner,” Woody said. “He made history for something as mundane and quotidian as owning a bookshop.”
Sancho’s dynamic achievements extended to music, but as a composer he left behind no great opuses, no grand symphonies or operas. This made turning his pieces into something fitting for H+H a challenge, a welcome one, for Woody.
***
For details on this streaming concert, go to handelandhaydn.org.
We are excited to announce our registration page
<https://www.pricefest.org/register>
is now open for PriceFest 2021 (August 20-23, 2021)!
Live Zoom performances and presentations, and
Interactive chat rooms
Fill out the registration form on pricefest.org/register
Click “Register” then click "Pay Registration Fee"
Select the appropriate registration fee, making sure the information on both forms matches.
Student Registration Fee: FREE (must include link to picture of Student ID)
Presenter Registration Fee: $25
General Registration Fee: $50
Registered attendees will receive an email with a link to our password-protected festival page later in the summer.
We at PriceFest work hard to keep the festival affordable. Please help us spread the word by sharing this flyer on social media and posting about your registration using the hashtag #newblackrenaissance or #PriceFest2021.
"Eleanor Alberga explores the whole gamut of the human experience in WILD BLUE YONDER, an equally diverse and coherent set of four contemporary chamber music pieces. While written over the course of twenty-two years, these pieces burst the limits of both space and time. No-Man’s-Land Lullaby reaches back over a century to World War I; Shining Gate of Morpheus enters the realm of the mystical; Succubus Moon explores the dark sides of the human psyche; and The Wild Blue Yonder offers a glimpse into a world that is at once alien and wonderful. Undauntedly, positively unsettling album; perfect listening for these unsettling times and a worthy addition to the much hailed album of Alberga's three string quartets from 2019."
Release Date: April 23, 2021
Catalog #: NV6346
Format: Physical & Digital
While the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) received $135 million in the American Rescue Plan, arts organizations that depend on live audiences are still struggling with how to reopen following COVID-19. That is, if they survive at all. If America’s famed concert halls and theaters have suffered immense budget shortfalls and faced layoffs, imagine the state of hundreds of regional symphonies, operas, dance companies, playhouses and more. Around 2.7 million arts workers are still currently unemployed, with many forced to leave their fields of music, dance, poetry and more to make ends meet with other jobs.
Just as Black and Latinx people are being hit hardest by COVID-19 from the health toll to economic impact, it is these arts professionals, and the organizations who support them through scholarships, grants, education and performance opportunities, that are in the most financial distress. For organizations without strong endowments, wealthy boards and donors, the threat of permanent closure due to the pandemic is imminent.
These organizations act as the sector’s talent pipeline, mentoring diverse young voices like Amanda Gorman, an alumna of the Los Angeles-based non-profit WriteGirl. These organizations provide arts education in low-income schools, offer studio space to emerging artists and dancers, provide scholarships to musicians, and showcase the creative work of underrepresented groups. Without them, some of our most talented artists and leaders of color may have never found an entry point into the sector.
I founded the Sphinx Organization in 1996 to foster the development of young Black and Latinx classical musicians. Our programs empower young Black and brown students — exceptional artists and leaders — to evolve the landscape of our field. Our artists have gone on to light up the stage at Carnegie Hall, win Grammys, and lead important cultural institutions across the country.
The Sphinx Organization will survive this economic downturn, through pivoting its programs and making necessary sacrifices so as not to lessen its artist support, but many other BIPOC-led or serving non-profits will not.
Castle of Our Skins is a concert and educational series celebrating Black artistry through music, and seeks to address lack of representation by lifting up Black talent and educating audiences about Black heritage and culture. The artists who rely on their programming have suffered tremendous losses in the wake of performance cancellations.
The Mosaic Youth Theatre works with youth, disproportionately minorities from low-income families across Detroit, and 95 percent of their students are accepted to college — a staggering accomplishment considering the typical statistics.
The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) has been supporting the Latinx arts community since 1989, and even as they struggle to navigate the weight of the pandemic on their programming, they have come together to distribute $1.15 million in COVID relief grants to Latinx artists and organizations.
These are only a few of countless smaller to mid-sized organizations that foster diversity in the arts, and nurture young Black and brown talent that is all too often cast aside in our society. Stand For The Arts, a coalition I advise brought together by Ovation TV, represents many of these regional organizations and is urging more massive federal investment in the arts. We also believe a Cabinet-level position for the arts is needed to ensure that funding gets distributed equitably.
Organizations that support Black and Latinx arts workers, especially right now, lack financial safety nets — they are less capitalized than major institutions, have less credit to address short-term issues, not to mention less deep-pocketed boards of directors.
Small non-profits also overwhelmingly rely on part-time staff and volunteers, a sticking point that disqualified so many from PPP loans at the onset of the pandemic. They often lacked the technology infrastructure needed to quickly pivot to remote programming that so many large institutions already had in place.
Someone has to help fill these gaps — not only because these organizations will be slower to recover or even close permanently, but because racial equity across the sector will be greatly harmed if they do.
***
Aaron Dworkin is a classical violinist, Professor of Arts Leadership & Entrepreneurship at the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business; University of Michigan, Member of The National Council on the Arts, Founder of the Sphinx Organization, Host of Arts Engines on Ovation TV and host of the YouTube show Artful Science.
"On SOUND AND LIGHT, Demondrae Thurman wields the euphonium to further expand its repertoire and cement its graceful power into the minds of composers of solos and orchestral works alike. Playing works written by five close friends, Thurman wholly dedicates himself to unlocking the musical mysteries of every measure and fully exploring the instrument’s potential.
"SOUND AND LIGHT features accompaniment by pianist Kathryn Fouse and new works by Barbara York, Doug Bristol, Anne Victorino d'Almeida, Patrick Schulz, and Anthony Barfield.
David Salazar
April 7, 2021
Tulsa Opera has announced an additional performance of its “Greenwood Overcomes” program on May 2, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. CT.
The program is also being performed on Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. That first showcase will be streamed on the company’s official website. In a press release, the company cited “high demand” as the reason for adding its second performance.
The showcase, which aims to commemorate the centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre, was curated by Met Opera pianist and Assistant Conductor Howard Watkins and Tulsa Opera Artistic Director Tobias Picker and features music by 23 Black composers performed by Black artists. Among the performers are mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, soprano Leah Hawkins, soprano Leona Mitchell, tenor Issachah Savage, tenor Noah Stewart, mezzo-soprano Krysty Swann, bass Kevin Thompson, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines.
John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:
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