For Black History Month, Pittsburgh Opera will host “I, Too, Am America,” a program of music from African-American composers Florence Price and William Grant Still. Price was the first African-American woman to have one of her works performed by a major orchestra when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played her first symphony in 1933. Still remains one of the most prominent Black composers in the opera world.
The concert features the opera’s head of music, Glenn Lewis, on piano and baritone Yazid Gray. The live broadcast begins at 7 p.m. Feb. 26, on YouTube. Register at pittsburghopera.org.
Hahn pointed out parallels between Pittsburgh Opera, founded in 1939 by five local women, and the National Negro Opera Company, formed two years later by Mary Cardwell Dawson in Homewood. He noted a photo of Dawson and Price together.
“This is not a camera trained on the keyboard and the singer,” Mr. Hahn said. “This is a program we wanted to use to elevate our relationship with the National Negro Opera Company and elevate the story of William Grant Still and Florence Price’s struggles in their careers.”
The concert will feature Still’s Three Visions for piano solo and Price’s piano sonata in E minor as well as several of her songs set to poetry by celebrated African American writers including Paul Laurence Dunbar, County Cullen and Langston Hughes.
No comments:
Post a Comment