The Itzhak Perlman protege pays tribute to Florence Price, William Grant Still, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson & others
First single is a world premiere violin recording of
Florence Price's "Adoration"
May 7, 2021 (New York, NY) - Today rising star and Young Concert Artists violinist Randall Goosby announces his debut album Roots, (Decca Classics) is set for release on June 25th. The
album is an exploration of the music written by Black composers and
inspired by Black American culture. The collection is a homage to the
pioneering musicians that paved the way for Goosby and his generation of
young artists. The first single “Adoration” was written by the African-American composer Florence Price and is recorded with violin for the first time ever on Roots. The world premiere recording can be heard here.
Goosby says, “I am so grateful for the opportunity to share this
album during such a pivotal moment in history. It has been a year of
division and isolation for so many – I hope this music will inspire not
only the kind of curiosity and creativity that brings people together,
but also the reflection, understanding and compassion we so desperately
need moving forward.” “Many of these African-American composers – William Grant Still,
Florence Price, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson – had to navigate society at a
time when racism, prejudice and segregation were commonplace. Today,
artists like myself, and other young artists of colour, enjoy more of a
sense of freedom and confidence in pursuing a career in classical
music.”
Produced by 2021 GRAMMY Producer of the Year, David Frost, the release also includes world premiere recordings of music by Florence Price,
lately enjoying renewed recognition across the world. Price made
history as the first African-American woman to have her music performed
by a major US orchestra in 1933, but after her death, her music faded
into obscurity. In 2009, manuscripts of Price’s music were rediscovered
and saved from destruction from her former home in Illinois: two “Fantasies” are commercially recorded for the first time, and “Adoration” recorded with violin makes its world debut as well. Maud Powell (1867-1920), one of America’s first
internationally acclaimed violinists, was known for championing music
written and performed by women and Black composers. Her transcription of
Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Spiritual “Deep River” features on this new recording, presented for piano and violin.
Known for his classical, jazz, and film music as much as his
collaborations with performers including Marvin Gaye and Harry
Belafonte, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) dedicated his “Blue/s Forms” to African American violinist Sanford Allen,
the first Black member of the New York Philharmonic. The work in three
parts draws influences from Baroque counterpoint, Black folk music and
American Romanticism. Allen, born in 1939, remains a close friend and
mentor to Goosby to this day. Jascha Heifetz’s virtuosic violin transcriptions from George Gershwin’s (1898-1937) Porgy and Bess follow, showcasing Goosby’s technical brilliance in the interpretation of American classics. William Grant Still (1895-1978), the first American composer to have an opera produced at NY City Opera, wrote his lesser-known chamber piece “Suite for Violin and Piano” in 1943, nicknamed “Mother and Child”
after the work’s second movement. Each of the three movements takes its
name from a sculpture: Richard Barthe’s African Dancer, Sargent
Johnson’s Mother and Child, and Augusta Savage’s Gamin, each artist a
notable force in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1910s-30s.
Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) composed “Sonatina”
in the autumn of 1893 when the composer was staying in New York City,
following a return from the American Midwest. Heavily influenced by his
exploration of Native American melodies and Negro Spirituals while in
the United States, Dvořák utilises pentatonic scales and syncopated
rhythms, with the second movement’s plaintive melodies echoing the
nostalgia felt by the composer for his homeland. A year on from their first meeting at the 2010 Sphinx Competition in
Detroit, Michigan, at which a 13-year old Goosby would become the
youngest musician to win First Place in the junior division, Goosby and
fellow YCA Artist Xavier Dubois Foley would reunite in
2011 at Shelter Island, New York, as participants in the Perlman Music
Program. As their friendship developed, so did the bluegrass and
R&B-inspired contemporary work “Shelter Island.” Receiving its world premiere recording on Roots, the piece looks to the future and is a specially commissioned work by New Jersey-based composer Foley. Goosby’s sparkling enthusiasm for the violin seeks to show young people
that music can inspire regardless of background, and with the release of
Roots, he continues to recognise the immense impact of the work done by Black and female composers in the last century. He says, “If
it weren’t for these composers, these artists and this music, I
wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing today. This recording is a tribute
to their lives and experiences, and their dedication to creating this
art that we all love.”
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