It’s tough keeping up with Lara Downes. No sooner have we reported on one of her latest innovative initiatives than it’s time to report on another. On Feb. 5, the relentlessly curious and creative pianist launches Rising Sun Music, a digital-format record label presenting works by Black composers spanning two centuries. The ongoing series will present monthly EPs celebrating specific themes: Remember Me to Harlem (February), Phenomenal Women (March), and Spring Fever (April).
From pioneers like William Grant Still, Eubie Blake, and Margaret Bonds to voices of today like Jessie Montgomery, Carlos Simon, and Quinn Mason, the composers spotlighted in this eclectic series broaden and enrich the conventional narratives of classical music in America and beyond. (See the current list of composers to be featured here.)
Artists in the series include Nicole Cabell; Regina Carter; Anat Cohen; Lara Downes; Randall Goosby; Stewart Goodyear; Ivalas Quartet; Jiji; Bridget Kibbey; Rachel Barton Pine, Davóne Tines; Titus Underwood, and others. These recordings are co-produced by Grammy award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse.
In a phone conversation, Downes told SF Classical Voice about her aspirations for the project:
The project has two main objectives. One is to make recordings of historical works that have not been recorded or are not available. That’s going back 200 years, so there’s a lot of research going on. A lot of finding manuscripts in libraries. That was my first vision for the project — just to uncover so many buried stories. The second piece of that is that it is illuminating the continuum — trying to position this music as a rich and broad and profound tradition, which means stretching forward into the present. In terms of choosing contemporary works, I have developed a wide community of living composers whose work I really appreciate, and there are always more to discover.
My main goal here is to really clarify something about American concert music and Black composers in terms of the narrative we’re always telling, which is that Florence Price was the first (fill in the blank) and that William Grant Still was the first (fill in the blank), and it’s a story of firsts and onlies. What I really want people to see when they understand the breadth of this music — how much there is and how much we don’t know — it is a tradition, a lineage that is a beautiful part of our American culture and our American life, and we don’t know it. And when we know it, we understand a lot of things about who we are and where we are going.”
Rising Sun Music is distributed digitally worldwide by [PIAS] and available on all major streaming and download platforms including Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Primephonic, and Idagio.
Sheet music for many of the pieces in the Rising Sun series will be published by the Theodore Presser Company. The publications will be available from all sheet music retailers worldwide, and directly from www.presser.com, in both print and digital formats.
The Rising Sun series is made possible by a grant from the Sphinx Venture Fund.
Here are the themes and playlists for the first three programs:
Feb. 5, 2021:
Remember Me to Harlem will focus on New York’s Harlem neighborhood as an iconic hub of Black creativity.
Benny Golson: Classical Dreams — Lara Downes, piano
Eubie Blake: Love Will Find A Way — Lara Downes, piano
William Grant Still: Song for the Lonely — Lara Downes, piano and Titus Underwood, oboe
Margaret Bonds/Langston Hughes: When the Dove Enters In — Lara Downes, piano and Davóne Tines, bass-baritone
March 5, 2021:
Phenomenal Women spotlights the music of Black women composers.
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April 2, 2021:
Spring Fever comprises four pieces inspired by the spring season.
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