BecauseOfThemWeCan.com: "After 152 years Albany High [in Albany, New York] has a Black valedictorian" [Onovu Otitigbe-Dangerfield]

https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/botwc-firsts/she-just-became-the-first-black-valedictorian-in-her-school-s-152-year-history

Because Of Them We Can

30th March 2021

A New York senior makes history as the first Black valedictorian at her high school, WNYT reports.

Onovu Otitigbe-Dangerfield is a senior at Albany High School in Albany, NY. She's always worked hard academically while also being active in several extracurricular activities. She's president of the robotics team, president of the Key Club, and editor-in-chief of the school's online newspaper. She's also a member of the Select Choir, a violinist, a pianist in the Jazz Improve Band, and a soccer team member. If that wasn't enough, on the weekends, she volunteers at a local nursing home.

The senior is now winding down her high school career with an almost perfect GPA. She's graduating at the top of her class and is now valedictorian, the first in the school's 152-year history.

Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program: Deadline is Friday, April 23, 2021 at 9:00 PM (Eastern)

Classical Commissioning Program 

Chamber Music America, the national network of ensemble music professionals provides grants through the Classical Commissioning Program to professional U.S.-based presenters and ensembles whose programming includes Western European and/or non-Western classical and contemporary music. 

  

Grants are provided for the commissioning and performance of new works by American composers. 

  

The program supports works scored for 2–10 musicians performing one per part, composed in any of the musical styles associated with contemporary classical music. 

  

Commission fees range from $5,000 to $20,000. Applicants must be Chamber Music America members at the Organization level. The new composition must be performed by the ensemble a minimum of three times in the U.S. 

 

Composers Equity Project 

Since 1983, only 93 of the 245 commissions made through CMA’s Classical Commissioning program have been composed by women or ALAANA (African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American) composers. 

  

The Board of Directors of Chamber Music America has made diversity, inclusion, and equity a primary focus of the organization’s work. (Please read CMA’s Statement of Commitment.) CMA’s goal in this program is, through the panel review process, to award a majority of the grants to applicants who apply with women and ALAANA composers. 

  

CMA has created the Composers Equity Project, a database of ALAANA, women and gender non-conforming composers that is accessible on CMA’s website. 

 

Applicants are encouraged to use this resource and become familiar with potential composers for a commission. 

  

Composers will continue to be added to this list regularly. ALAANA, women, and gender non-conforming composers who wish to be included in future versions of this list may submit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9gJ_gXpsNwDOp0uBUwIlNlB_yrEKvQFVdwtZmsRbhGgjrTg/viewform

their information to CMA. 

Some composers that have been funded by CMA in recent years include:  Billy Childs, Valerie Coleman, James Lee, III, George Lewis, Jessie Montgomery, David Sanford, Jeff Scott, Carlos Simon, Alvin Singleton, Tyshawn Sorey, and Trevor Weston.

  

Classical Commissioning Deadline 

The Classical Commissioning deadline is Friday, April 23, 2021 at 9:00 PM (Eastern). Applications must be submitted online by the applicant ensemble. 

Applicants are welcome to schedule a consultation prior to submitting a proposal by emailing Susan Dadian, program director, CMA Classical/Contemporary.

  

Click here  https://www.chamber-music.org/programs/classical/grants#l408  for program information. CMA’s Classical Commissioning Program grants are made possible by generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

  

Susan Dadian

Program Director, CMA Classical/Contemporary

T: 212-242-2022, ext. 102

 

​Chamber Music America

12 West 32^nd Street, 7^th Floor

New York, NY 10001

 ​

www.chamber-music.org 

First Run Features presents African-American Histories In The South In The New Documentary UNMARKED Streaming April 27: Apple TV, iTunes & Amazon

If We Don't Save Our Past,

We'll Lose It.

First Run Features presents the Streaming and DVD Premiere of the new documentary UNMARKED, beginning April 27, 2021.

Throughout the South, vast numbers of African-American gravesites and burial grounds for enslaved persons have been lost or are disappearing through neglect and nature reclaiming the solemn tombstones and markers.

Recently, there has been a rise in the restoration and  preservation of these forgotten sites by those who have  a personal connection with the deceased or an  appreciation of their historical significance. But there is much work to be done in order to preserve  this part of America’s history. UNMARKED not only  explores these untold stories of the past but also the  efforts underway to preserve them. Watch Trailer https://vimeo.com/526253738

NewJerseyStage.com: "Catalyst Quartet (4/24 Live, 4/25 Online) presents a program of rarely heard music by Florence Price and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b55X7adNO6M&t=13s

New Jersey Stage

(MULLICA HILL, NJ) -- Music at Bunker Hill, in partnership with The Music Barn, presents three afternoon concerts this spring, offered live and online at 2:30pm. The concerts include performances by Catalyst Quartet, Sybarite5, and A Festival of Strings.

***

Catalyst Quartet (4/24 Live, 4/25 Online) presents a program of rarely heard music by Florence Price and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, bringing to light the music of these wonderful composers. Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagine their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience.

 

Bill Doggett: April 2nd 7pm EST, 4pm PT, 6pm CT Adolphus Hailstork's meditation on The American Civil War: GHOSTS IN GREY AND BLUE for Brass Ensemble

Adolphus Hailstork

Bill Doggett writes:

You are cordially invited.

Dateline, April 2nd 7pm ET, 4pm PT, 6pm CT

Adolphus Hailstork's meditation on The American Civil War: GHOSTS IN GREY AND BLUE for Brass Ensemble is a timely reminder about the themes that underscore our nation's historic and contemporary reckoning with Race.

The Premiere is presented by Lehman College CUNY April 2nd at 7pm EST on their YouTube Channel below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5uyJd14WKU

John Malveaux: Composer Margaret Bonds 1965 sabt "ESPECIALLY DO I BELIEVE IN THE NEGRO RACE" (song #2 from CREDO) edited by Michael Cooper

Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

Composer Margaret Bonds 1965 sabt "ESPECIALLY DO I BELIEVE IN THE NEGRO RACE" (song #2 from CREDO) edited by Michael Cooper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVXfS17akKI

 

BroadwayWorld.com: KaufmanMusicCenter: Music by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor & Chevalier de Saint-Georges 7 PM ET April 29

Violin Concerto No. 2

Florence B. Price

Broadway World

Kaufman Music Center

New York, NY

Merkin Hall

Fast Forward: ComposerFest

Thursday | April 29 2021 | 7 pm                                               

Virtual performance filmed in Merkin Hall

Suggested Donation $15

Buy Tickets
https://tickets.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/4532/4535

Young musicians from Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School and Lucy Moses School perform music by Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges.

ArtsKnoxville.com: "The real eye-opener, and ear-opener, of the evening was Simon’s impressive 'Portrait of a Queen.' Written as his doctoral composition..."

 

Composer Carlos Simon

Arts Knoxville

March 27, 2021

Alan Sherrod

Review: KSO Continues Return to Live Performances with Carlos Simon's ‘Portrait of a Queen’

As the Covid-19 virus ravaged lives and livelihoods over the last year, those artists who had been on the verge of big moments and big careers seemed in serious peril. Thankfully, the young composer, Carlos Simon, seems to have weathered the career storm and potential loss of inertia that the pandemic has wrought. In its gradual, limited return to live audience performances, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra introduced Simon’s Portrait of a Queen on Thursday evening at the Tennessee Theatre to an audience that was probably making Simon’s musical acquaintance for the first time.

***

Following the opening work, Joseph Haydn’s cleverly satisfying Symphony No. 85 (“The Queen”), Demirjian and the orchestra launched into a symphony by a Haydn contemporary, Joseph Boulogne, otherwise known by the title of Chevalier de Saint-Georges. As one of the many ironies of racism, Saint-Georges, the son of a wealthy French planter and an African slave, was educated in France and there became a renowned violinist, composer, and conductor, as well as a champion fencer. It was in his capacity as orchestra leader of the Concert Olympique that Saint-Georges commissioned and premiered the six “Paris” symphonies from Haydn that included the No. 85. The “should have been” here is that, despite his popular abilities and the favoritism of Queen Marie Antoinette who was an admirer of both composers, Saint-Georges’ career was stymied by those who refused to accept his mixed race status.

***

Demirjian followed with an example of a “should have been” closer to home—the American composer Florence Price.

***

Price’s Andante moderato for Strings, arranged from a movement of her String Quartet in G major, is lush, luscious, and lyrical, in this case, a welcome opportunity for the KSO strings to reclaim their ensemble strengths.

***

The real eye-opener, and ear-opener, of the evening was Simon’s impressive Portrait of a Queen. Written as his doctoral composition at the University of Michigan in 2017—scored for strings, piano, percussion, some audio playback, and a female voice as a spoken narrator (text written by Courtney D. Ware)—the work is bold and charged with the energy and textures of struggle and hope. The narration was read with restrained power and obvious loving gravity in this performance by Knoxville’s Reneé Kesler.

Simon’s program notes describe the work: “This piece traces the evolution of black people in America through the lens of one figurative black woman who represents strength, courage and selflessness.”

Inquirer.com: "Some new U.S. citizens were serenaded by Philadelphia Orchestra musicians" with "Great Day" from Adolphus Hailstork's "Three Spirituals" March 25

Adolphus Hailstork

https://www.inquirer.com/arts/philadelphia-orchestra-new-us-citizens-serenade-20210326.html

(Tyger Williams)

Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra perform at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for naturalization ceremonies for new U.S. citizens.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

by Peter Dobrin

Published Mar 26, 2021

The expected tradition involves the gift of a little American flag and pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. But an additional welcome awaited a few dozen newly minted U.S. citizens Thursday at three naturalization ceremonies in West Philadelphia — a musical one played by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Recipients said they were surprised and touched by the serenade.

“It was really very serene, very calming music,” said Pakistan-born Sabah Samson, a Wells Fargo financial adviser, just after officially becoming a U.S. citizen. “It reached the soul.”

Thursday’s ceremonies at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services offices at 41st St. and Powelton Ave. were presided over by Joel H. Slomsky, a senior U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Slomsky spoke about the U.S. being a country of immigrants, and the richness of cultures these new citizens bring from Burma, Canada, India, Jordan, Ukraine, Vietnam, and elsewhere.

He also spoke about his own heritage and culture, and the fact that “music has been a part of my pursuit of happiness.”

More specifically, Slomsky is a Philadelphia Orchestra fan. It was during another naturalization service, in 2018, that one new citizen, Julia Li, mentioned that she was a violinist with the orchestra, and the judge’s ears perked up.

***

As the pandemic wore on, Thursday’s performance by Li, violist Che-Hung Chen and cellist Yumi Kendall was arranged.

It arrived at just the right time for Maggie Li Zhang, from China.

“With all of the attacks and hate against Asian Americans, the last week has been difficult, and this morning I was thinking about becoming a U.S. citizen with all of this going on.”

During the surprise string trio performance, she noticed the orchestra’s Asian musicians, and thought: “They went through this and I can also. I want to be part of the change I want to see, to make America kind and loving again.”

The timing also felt significant to Kendall.

“What a great way to celebrate how rich and diverse and welcoming this country is at its core. That’s what I feel like we’re about and should be about in light of recent events,” said the cellist of today’s role for the orchestra.

Each of the pieces played Thursday was chosen for a specific reason. Music by a living American composer was important, said Kendall, hence “Great Day” from Adolphus Hailstork’s Three Spirituals. Dvorak was represented with the “Cavatina” from Miniatures, with the composer an example of someone who came to America from elsewhere and absorbed its sound.

Bard.edu: Bard SummerScape July 8 - August 14 includes World Premiere Collaboration by Pam Tanowitz and Jessie Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery

(jessiemontgomery.com)

Bard College

March 26, 2021

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY — Long recognized as “a hotbed of intellectual and aesthetic adventure” (New York Times), Bard SummerScape returns this summer with a full season of live music, dance, opera, and performance, culminating in the 31st annual Bard Music Festival, “Nadia Boulanger and Her World.” Productions will be staged for limited in-person audiences both indoors and out, from July 8 to August 22, across Bard’s idyllic 1,000-acre campus, adhering to rigorous health and safety protocols while celebrating the joys of live performance and the beauty of the Hudson Valley.

***

SummerScape 2021 opens with the world premiere of I was waiting for the echo of a better day, a new commission from Bard’s Fisher Center Choreographer-in-Residence Pam Tanowitz and Bernstein Award-winning composer Jessie Montgomery. Performed outdoors with live music before an audience at Montgomery Place, this large-scale dance work marks Tanowitz’s return to SummerScape after the resounding success of her Four Quartets, a Fisher Center commission that premiered at the 2018 festival. 

bachtrack.com: Ulysses Kay, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the soul of a nation

Ulysses Kay (1917-1995)

bachtrack

By Laurence Vittes, 25 March 2021

It was a night in America like so many others, the day after a mass murder. It would have thrown a pall over any public event, especially over a concert given by an orchestra with as strong a community bond as the Buffalo Philharmonic. A spokesperson, perhaps music director JoAnn Falletta, would have addressed the audience and the scheduled music might have been adjusted to fit the occasion. In fact, just a few days before, the orchestra had issued a statement condemning anti-AAPI violence in the wake of the Atlanta spa shootings. And Ulysses Kay's Pietà, in what may have been its first performance since 1958, provided an opportunity to reflect on beauty and the soul of a nation.

In 1958, Kay along with William Schuman, Roy Harris and Roger Sessions traveled to Moscow to represent the United States as guests of the Soviet Union Composers' Union. He was the first African-American to receive the Prix de Rome and wrote his eight-minute Pietà in 1950 during his stay in the Eternal City, perhaps referring to Michelangelo's sculpture, as a work for English horn and piano dedicated to Pietro Accoroni. It was played in the composer's exquisite orchestration for a small chamber ensemble with a sense of inner reflection blooming into sound by Anna Mattix who had found and championed the piece. A moody introduction led to intertwined themes of yearning and a little phrase that unavoidably and not unpleasantly recalled the Serenade movement in Berlioz's Harold in Italy. 

NormanTranscript.com: Oklahoma University tribute to celebrate composer Florence Price at 8 PM CT April 9, 2021 with free livestream concert

Florence B. Price (1887-1953)

The Norman Transcript

Norman, Oklahoma

March 25, 2021

The life and music of Florence Price, the first noted African American female composer, will be celebrated by the University of Oklahoma School of Music during a tribute recital at 8 p.m. April 9.

The event will be available for public viewing free via livestream at the time of the event.

Sarah Ellis, music theory professor, OU School of Music, will open the recital with a lecture about the life of the composer.

OU School of Music undergraduate and graduate students from the piano, organ, string and voice areas will perform a variety of Price’s works, including works for vocal, piano and organ.

***

To watch The Music of Florence Price Concert, visit ou.edu/finearts/music/live

 

University of Notre Dame Press: First Major Biography of "William Still" Now Available

2021 Marks the 200th Birthday of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad.

On April 1, 2021, the University of Notre Dame Press will publish William Still: The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia by William Kashatus. William Still (1821–1902) was one of the most prominent figures of the Underground Railroad (UGRR) and the most influential agent on the Eastern Line. He is also known for his self-published book, The Underground Railroad (1872), which is the only first person account of Black activities on the Underground Railroad written and self-published by an African American. Until now there has not been a comprehensive biography of Still's life.

William Still has received strong early reviews:

"In the first scholarly biography of Still, Kashatus highlights the critical roles Still and other Black Americans played along the entire Underground Railroad, and the risks they took to aid enslaved people. A penetrating analysis of Still’s interviews reveals new and important insights into the enslaved people who made the journey into freedom. . . . An essential work that is a must-read for those interested in the Underground Railroad and Black history in the U.S." —Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Kashatus’s detailed biography of William Still, with its stories of courageous slaves plotting daring escapes, and moving accounts of free Black people who were kidnapped and taken into slavery, reveals the interracial cooperation involved in helping escaped slaves reach freedom, and honors the man who, at his death in 1902, was named 'Father of the Underground Railroad.'" —Foreword Reviews (Starred Review)

SevenDaysVT.com: Vermont Symphony Orchestra Addresses Racial Reckoning in a Multi-Genre Performance Streaming 7:30 PM ET March 27, 2021

Ray Vega (center) and members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

(Luke Awtry)

Seven Days

By Amy Lilly

March 24, 2021

In the classical music world, it has been all too customary to characterize phenomenally talented mixed-race composers as lesser versions of white composers. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) became known as the "Black Mozart"; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was dubbed "the African Mahler." Amazingly, these demeaning monikers live on today.

Clearly, a reckoning is needed, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra is doing its part with a BIPOC-focused program for its final streamed concert of the season, on March 27. The event features compositions by Bologne, Coleridge-Taylor and seven other composers of color. One is Florence Price (1887-1953), whose compositions have seen renewed play since the discovery of a trove of them in an Illinois attic in 2009.

Four of the seven composers are living: Dorothy Rudd Moore cofounded the Society of Black Composers in 1968 and lives in New York City; Carlos Simon is an assistant professor at Georgetown University; Ray Vega is a senior lecturer at the University of Vermont; and Matthew Evan Taylor is an assistant professor at Middlebury College.

Simon's and Vega's pieces are both VSO commissions that will be receiving premieres. Simon used his commission to add a second and third movement to his 2020 work for string quartet about the Great Migration: "Warmth From Other Suns." Vega, a trumpet player, composed "Buscando Doña Juana Figueroa" for trumpet and string quartet in honor of his Puerto Rican grandmother.

There's much more than music in this final installment of "Music for Days Like This," the orchestra's pandemic series. Indeed, the VSO's official description of the prerecorded and edited video event suggests something of a sprawling beast, combining music, verse and visual art. Former Vermonter Reuben Jackson, who anchored Vermont Public Radio's "Friday Night Jazz" from 2012 to 2018, provides audio introductions to each poet, artist or composer. While he narrates, historical portraits and other images will fill the screen.

Former U.S. poet laureate Rita Dove has provided audio of herself reading two of her poems. Jackson, who published Scattered Clouds: New & Selected Poems in 2019, will read one of his, as well. Works by three Vermont BIPOC artists — Crystal Stokes of Worcester, Alan Blackwell of Brattleboro and Haitian-born Julio Desmont of Burlington — will be projected on a screen behind the musicians as they perform. (The performances were recorded at Essex Cinemas.)                     

UWGB.edu: A Virtual Concert of musicians of the Weidner Philharmonic includes works of Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges & Florence Price 7 PM CT April 20

Joseph Bologne, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799)

Florence B. Price (1887-1953)

University of Wisconsin Green Bay

March 24, 2021

Upcoming virtual events at the Weidner Center

Weidner Philharmonic String Quartet: Virtual Concert

A Virtual Concert featuring string musicians of the Weidner Philharmonic. Concert repertoire includes pieces from Henry Purcell, Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Florence Price, and Michelle McQuade Dewhirst.

Streaming Live April 20 | 7:00 p.m.

All events are streamed via the Weidner Center YouTube Channel.

 

OperaCréole: Burleigh Festival Virtual Session I: Black Arts Organizations and Leadership; Registration Required; General $15, Student $10

OperaCréole

Givonna Joseph writes:

Hello Everyone, 

Here’s the next online adventure for Aria and me! 

Coming up this Thursday! 

Here is the link to register. 

https://www.tnstate.edu/music/Burleighfestival.aspx

All the best, 

Givonna 

--

Givonna Joseph
Founder and Artistic Director
OperaCréole
www.operacreole.org
New number: 504-356-3078

--

Givonna Joseph
Founder and Artistic Director
OperaCréole
www.operacreole.org
New number: 504-356-3078

Bill Doggett: NYTimes.com: A Malcolm X Opera Will Get a Rare Revival in Detroit

 X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X

An Opera In Three Acts by Anthony Davis

The New York Times

By Joshua Barone

March 23, 2021 Updated 10:18 a.m. ET

When Anthony Davis’s sprawling, genre-blending biographical opera “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” premiered in 1986 at New York City Opera, it drew a notably diverse audience and was considered a commercial success. Yet it has rarely been revived.

A new production is coming, though, as part of Michigan Opera Theater’s 2021-22 season — the first under its new artistic director, Yuval Sharon. Opening in May 2022, “X” will be directed by Robert O’Hara (“Slave Play”) and star the bass-baritone Davóne Tines, who will also be the season’s artist in residence.

“My first interview for this job was shortly after the murder of George Floyd,” Sharon, who is also an innovative stage director, said in an interview. “I thought: This is a moment for change. Casting singers of color is really easy, but my focus has been on composers, librettists, conductors. I’m thinking about this season as a statement of principles, and that’s what I hope for going forward.”

As part of the season announcement, on Tuesday, Michigan Opera Theater also said that Christine Goerke, a reigning Wagnerian soprano who sang the role of Brünnhilde last fall in “Twilight: Gods” — Sharon’s drive-through abridgment of “Götterdämmerung” in a Detroit parking garage — would join next season as associate artistic director.

Bill Doggett writes:

 Check out X Excerpts from the cd recording on SoundCloud  

https://soundcloud.com/bill-doggett/anthony-davisx-the-life-and-times-of-malcolm-xan-opera-in-three-acts-excerpts

OperaWire.com: Portland Opera Presents "Journeys to Justice" including Adolphus Hailstork's "Songs of Love and Justice"

Adolphus Hailstork

OperaWire

Mar 22, 2021

Portland Opera to Explore Black Experience in ‘Journeys to Justice’ Concert

By Logan Martell

On April 16, 2021, Portland Opera will present “Journeys to Justice,” a virtual concert featuring art songs, opera, and short pieces that focus on love, justice, and the experiences of Black Americans.

Curated by PO Artistic Advisor Damien Geter, the concert will be directed by Associate Artistic Director for Portland Center Stage Chip Miller. Lance Inouye conducts a roster of Portland Opera 2020-21 Resident Artists including Lynnesha Crump, Jasmine Johnson, David Morgans Sanchez, Michael Parham, and Edwin Jhamal Davis; soprano Leah Hawkins will also perform. PO Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor Nicholas Fox will provide accompaniment.

The program is comprised of works such as Jasmine Barnes’ “Songs for the African Violet,” Shawn Okpebholo’s “Two Black Churches,” “Your Daddy’s Son” from Stephen Flaherty’s “Ragtime,” Carlos Simon’s “Night Trip,” Dr. Adolphus Hailstork’s “Songs of Love and Justice,” and more.

The program is comprised of works such as Jasmine Barnes’ “Songs for the African Violet,” Shawn Okpebholo’s “Two Black Churches,” “Your Daddy’s Son” from Stephen Flaherty’s “Ragtime,” Carlos Simon’s “Night Trip,” Dr. Adolphus Hailstork’s “Songs of Love and Justice,” and more.

***

The concert will be available until May 31. Digital passes have a suggested price of $50, as well as a Pay What You Will option that allows for a minimum purchase of $5.

NOBLE mourns the loss of NOBLE Founder Chief Burtell Jefferson

 

Passing of NOBLE Founder 

Chief Burtell Jefferson

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) is deeply saddened to inform you of the passing of Founding NOBLE member, Chief Burtell Jefferson.

 

Chief Jefferson was truly a pioneer and giant upon whose shoulders many Blacks in law enforcement stand. He was a United States Army veteran, who joined the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in 1948, when only a handful of black officers were on the job. Although the department was still segregated with black officers relegated to patrolling the least desirable areas, by 1950, Chief Jefferson had become a Detective.  He worked in several different investigative units, including the Robbery Squad and the Morals Division. In 1972, Chief Jefferson was awarded a Presidential Citation for his leadership as captain and commander of the Robbery Squad, and for his impact in achieving a 13 percent reduction in the crime rate in the District of Columbia’s Third District.  

 

Chief Jefferson steadily rose through the ranks at MPD, becoming a Lieutenant in 1968, an Assistant Chief in 1974; and, in 1978, he became the District of Columbia’s first African American Chief of Police. He served honorably in this position until retiring in 1981, after thirty three years of service. Chief Jefferson was responsible for numerous publications and has been recognized by countless national, local and private leaders for his contributions to the betterment of the city of Washington, DC. He is also widely considered as having significantly contributed to the advancement of many fellow officers in their promotion and elevation through police department ranks. In 1976, he was among 61 founders who came together to create the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). He remained a member of the Washington, DC Metro Chapter until his passing. A history of Chief Jefferson’s career can be found here.

 

NOBLE National President Lynda R. Williams and the NOBLE family extend our deepest sympathy to Chief Jefferson’s family, members of the Washington DC Metropolitan Chapter, and all the many colleagues and friends that were touched by his life and service.

 

Arrangements have not been finalized but will be shared when the information becomes available.

OperaWire.com: Julia Bullock, Russell Thomas & J'Nai Bridges are Headliners in LA Opera’s Signature Recital Series April 9, April 23 and May 21

OperaWire

March 21, 2021

By Francisco Salazar

The Signature Recital Series opens with Russell Thomas, the company’s Artist in Residence, joining pianist Mi-Kyung Kim for a performance of Schumann’s song cycle “Dichterliebe.” The performance which will be streamed on April 9 will be filmed at Atlanta’s Spivey Hall and will also include love songs by American composers Adolphus Hailstork and Robert Owens.

On April 23, J’Nai Bridges will appear alongside pianist Howard Watkins in a recital filmed at the Harlem School of the Arts.

***

On May 21, Julia Bullock will be filmed at the stunning new Blaibach Concert Hall in Germany and will present a recital alongside pianist Laura Poe with German song repertoire of Wolf, Schumann, and Weill. There will also be American music by John Adams, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still. Bullock will also perform from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music.”