John Malveaux: Jan. 30, 2022 attended Los Angeles Master Chorale concert to hear the performance of 'Veni Sancte Spiritus' by composer Zanaida Robles

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

January 30, 2022 attended Los Angeles Master Chorale concert under direction of Jenny Wong at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angel is nearby and the CITY CALLED HEAVEN titled concert gave me the feeling of Walt Disney Concert Hall as a sacred space. The concert included world premieres by Dale Trumbore (And So) and Saunder Choi (A Journey of Your Own). I was there to hear the performance of 'Veni Sancte Spiritus' by composer Zanaida Robles who is a mentee of past years and former director of MusicUNTOLD Chorale.  See https://zanaidarobles.com/ and pic (Zanaida, Vincent Robles (husband), and John Malveaux.

Kevin Scott: ZOOM Concert of February 1st Celebrating Black History Month features two of my compositions: "Three Pieces for Scott" & "Two Pieces for Porter"

Kevin Scott

Conductor and Composer Kevin Scott writes:

Folks:

As promised, here is the ZOOM link to tomorrow's concert featuring two of my compositions for piano, Three Pieces for Scott and Two Pieces for Porter:

Helene Spierman is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Classical Recital No. 2 Honoring Black History Month

Time: Feb 1, 2022 05:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/ 84833976739?pwd= WkM5RHJueVNlSzN6dHp1NEVjNVlwQT 09

Meeting ID: 848 3397 6739

Passcode: 003101

One tap mobile

+19292056099,,84833976739# US (New York)

+13126266799,,84833976739# US (Chicago)

Dial by your location

        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)

        +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)

        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)

Meeting ID: 848 3397 6739

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/ kntdOCBET

If, for some reason, you are unable to attend, this concert will be posted on YouTube in its entirety. All music performances will also be posted separately.

Thank you and see you tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Kevin Scott

John Malveaux: Jan. 29, 2022, prior to LACO concert "Montgomery, Mozart, R Strauss" I briefly chatted with musician, educator, composer Dr. Dawn Norfleet

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

January 29, 2022, prior to performance of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concert "Montgomery, Mozart, R Strauss" at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, I briefly chatted with musician, educator, composer Dr. Dawn Norfleet and Ben Cadwallader, executive director of LACO, about diversity in classical music. See pic from left Ben Cadwallader, Dr. Norfleet, and John Malveaux. Also see Meet the Artist with Dawn Norfleet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boFd6p5HV8Q   

John Malveaux: January 29, 2022, I attended the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concert "Montgomery, Mozart, R Strauss" in Pasadena

Myles Yeazell

Wilfred Farquharson

John Malveaux of MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

January 29, 2022, I attended the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concert "Montgomery, Mozart, R Strauss" at Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. Violinist and composer  Jessie Montgomery is a former multiple Sphinx Award winner. Before the concert I briefly met LACO Fellows Myles Yeazell (cello) pic 1 and Wilfred Farquharson (viola) pic 2. The LACO Fellowship is a two-year intensive training for musicians on violin, viola and cello. 

Sphinx: Announcing the results of 25th Annual Sphinx Competition

The Sphinx Competition is the national competition offering young Black and Latinx classical string players the chance to perform under the guidance of an internationally renowned panel of judges and compete for prizes ranging from $3,000 to the first place $50,000 Robert Frederick Smith Prize.

Senior Division

1st Place $50,000

Robert Frederick Smith Prize

Kebra-Seyoun Charles,

Double Bass

Miami, FL

School: The Juilliard School

Second Place

Gabriela Lara, Violin

Barquisimeto, Venezuela

School: CCPA Roosevelt University

Third Place

Harper Randolph, Viola

Washington, DC

School: University of Michigan

Junior Division

1st Place $10,000

Jonathan Okseniuk, Violin

Mesa, AZ

School: Arete Preparatory Academy

Second Place

Brandon Leonard, Cello

Stone Mountain, GA

School: Chamblee Charter High School

Third Place

Ana Isabella España, Violin

New York, NY

School: Special Music School

Gabriela Lara, Violin

Barquisimeto, Venezuela

School: CCPA Roosevelt University

Junior Division

Audience Choice Award

Brandon Leonard, Cello

Stone Mountain, GA

School: Chamblee Charter High School

Rewatch the finals

Sergio A. Mims: Chineke! Orchestra Proms 2021 on WFMT-FM and Livestream 8 PM CT Chicago February 8

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

 

Sergio A. Mims writes:

W,

Chicago's classical music station WFMT-FM (98.7 FM and livestream on the website www.wfmt.com) will broadcast the The Chineke! Orchestra 2021 Proms Concert from Royal Albert Hall which took place last August at 8 PM Central Time.

"The Chineke! Orchestra returns to the Proms, celebrating diversity in composers as well as performers. Their program conducted by Kalena Bovell features works by the Black British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Fela Sowande's "African Suite", and Florence Price's Piano Concerto with soloist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason"

TheGuardian.com: The African Concert Series review – wild and shimmering piano gems

‘A quest to discover and perform’: Rebeca Omordia at the October Gallery. 

Photograph: Sophia Evans/The Observer

The Guardian

Stephen Pritchard

Sat 29 Jan 2022 07.30 EST

October Gallery, London
Rebeca Omordia launches this year’s series with a fascinating recital of music from Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and South Africa

African art music – a bridge between western classical forms and traditional melody and rhythm – has a determined champion in the Romanian-Nigerian pianist Rebeca Omordia. She has made her life’s work a quest to discover and perform the output of composers – often unpublished – from right across that great continent. Judging by her inaugural recital in this year’s African Concert Series, her determination is yielding fascinating results.

Imagine, if you can, a sensuous, serpentine Arabic melody in the left hand winding its way up towards a delicate filigree of sparkling stars in the right hand and you have something of the impression that Moroccan composer Nabil Benabdeljalil (b.1972) creates in his beautiful Nocturne No 4 from 2015. His romantic Nocturne No 6 from 2020, which expresses his intense joy at roaming the Middle Atlas mountains after lockdown, feels as though John Field himself might have been a ghostly presence at his side.

Christian Onyeji (b.1967) seeks to transfer Nigerian drumming techniques to the piano in his Ufie, Igbo Dance, which becomes a wild celebration of intense rhythm, captured dramatically by Omordia.

The Harlem Chamber Players Present Their 14th Annual Black History Month Celebration At 6 PM ET, Wed., February 23, At The Harlem School of The Arts

On Wednesday, February 23, 2022 at 6 PM ET, The Harlem Chamber Players will present its 14th Annual Black History Month Celebration in the newly renovated Dorothy Maynor Hall at the Harlem School of the Arts, located at 645 St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, New York, 10030.

The program will feature the world premiere of We Met at the Symphony for Soprano and String Quartet by Nkeiru Okoye. This work was commissioned by The Harlem Chamber Players. Also on the program are David Baker’s Through This Vale of Tears for Tenor, Piano, and Strings and William Grant Still’s Ennanga for Harp, Strings, and Piano. You must show proof of vaccination in order to

attend. Masks and social distancing are also required. Temperatures will be taken at the door.

Featured artists on this concert are soprano Leah Hawkins, Met tenor Chauncey Packer, harpist Ashley Jackson, pianist Kyle Walker, violinists Ashley Horne and Sandra Billingslea, violist William Frampton, and cellist Wayne Smith. Terrance McKnight of WQXR will host.

Tickets are $20 for General Admission and $15 for Students and Seniors and may be purchased online at:

harlemchamberplayers.ticketleap.com/14th-annual-black-history/

Additional information about the concert can be found at: www.harlemchamberplayers.org/event/
14th-annual-black-history-month-celebration

The Harlem Chamber Players’ official website is www.harlemchamberplayers.org.

The Harlem Chamber Players, Inc. is an ethnically diverse collective of professional musicians dedicated to bringing high-caliber, affordable, accessible live classical music to people in the Harlem community and beyond. The Harlem Chamber Players promote arts inclusion, diversity in classical music and equal access to the arts. The Harlem Chamber Players bring music to underserved

neighborhoods, promote shared community arts and cultural engagement and provide opportunities for classically trained musicians of color.

Kevin Scott Music Update for 2022

 

Kevin Scott writes:

Good morning, all!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the new year and that we're looking forward to a lot of new things that will happen in the coming months ahead, the news on this end is off to a great beginning as well.

Here are my announcements of upcoming performances and events for this year (thus far):

This past Saturday (22 January), The Lowell Chamber Orchestra under the direction of its founder Orlando Cela officially recorded my second little symphony for seven players in Lowell, Massachusetts for an upcoming recording on Parma Records that is comprised of five of Darius Milhaud's petite symphonies for different instrumental combinations alongside five companion pieces by five different composers including this person (the others being Quinn Mason,  who were commissioned for this project. The second little symphony will officially receive its world premiere by these forces sometime in the 2022-23 concert season, so I will keep everyone informed as to the recording's release and the first public performance.

1 February - There will be a ZOOM concert of works by Black composers performed by pianist Leonard Lehrman, violinist Dan Hyman, soprano Helene Williams and mezzo-soprano Patrice Eaton as part of his monthly Virtual Music Recital series sponsored by the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library in conjunction with Court Street Music of Valley Stream. On this program Leonard will perform two works of mine: Three Pieces for Scott, a short cycle of piano pieces written for the pianist Scott Tinney (now deceased) who requested short works for his virtual performances on Facebook, and the world premiere of Two Pieces for Porter, a pair of works written on a call for scores by pianist Stephen Porter that pay homage to Schubert (Schubert's Swan) and Beethoven (Ruminations). The concert will also feature works by composer-conductor Joseph Jones as well as compositions by Hale Smith, Abel Meeropol, Edith Segal, Elie Siegmeister and the world premiere of Leonard Lehrman's setting of Amanda Gorman's 2021 poem "The Hill We Climb", penned for the inauguration of President Biden.

A flyer for the concert is annexed herewith. I will send the ZOOM link to this concert over the weekend. If you are unable to attend, the concert will be posted in its entirety on YouTube, and you can also hear the segments for this concert.

19 and 20 March - Triad, a Boston-based choral collective comprised of professional singers, composers and conductors, will premiere my motet In Manus Tuas on these dates. Locations to be announced. If the live concerts are cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic, this concert will be done in a virtual setting. For further information about the group, here is their website:

Triad: Boston's Choral Collective (triadchoir.org)

9 April - Conductor David Tedford will conduct the second performance of my Introduction and Allegro for string orchestra with the Bloomsburg University Community Orchestra in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. This will be the first performance of this composition on this side of the country, as the world premiere took place in February of 2017 with Warren Cohen conducting the Musica Nova Orchestra in Osborn, Arizona. 

21 to 30 May - I will be on the composition faculty in Alba, Italy, as part of this year's contemporary music festival in that fabled city, and a new work for saxophone quartet will be premiered by The Estrella Consort, the resident ensemble for this series. Please note that if the pandemic continues to persist, the dates and/or location are subject to be changed. Further news can be found on their website:

ALBA MUSIC FESTIVAL COMPOSITION PROGRAM - Alba Music Festival Composition Program (albacomposition.com)

And here is the roster of composers teaching in Alba:

The Composition Faculty - ALBA MUSIC FESTIVAL COMPOSITION PROGRAM (albacomposition.com)

Also, please look forward to announcements of the following:

-  Conducting appearances with OperAvant sometime this year in New York;

-  Commencing crowdfunding to seek funds for a recording project comprised of several of my chamber compositions including my seventh string quartet, Hitch! for string quintet and other works to be determined (Label to be announced);

 - Commencing crowdfunding to seek funds for several recording projects conducting orchestral works by Ulysses Kay (five compositions receiving world premiere recordings for Albany Records) and Heikki Suolahti (more news to follow on this project, label to be determined) and eventually a couple of discs of wind band music by several composers to be announced. These projects will span across this year and next, so updates will be forthcoming.

And, like last year, there will be some surprise announcements in regard to any compositions of mine that might get programmed at the last minute, so please stay tuned for further news.

Thank you, one and all. 

Sincerely,

Kevin Scott

p.s. - if you receive a duplicate announcement, it is because I have yet to properly update my list. Please let me know this and I will correct it immediately.

p.p.s. - if you do not wish to receive further announcements, please contact me and I will remove you from my mailing list immediately.

Kelly Hall-Tompkins: Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto at Overture Hall

 Photo: Patricia Johnson

Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins writes:

I hope this email finds you well.  I just returned from an incredibly exciting weekend performing for my first time out the Wynton Marsalis Violin Concerto with the Madison Symphony in their stunning Overture Hall.  This wonderful masterpiece is enormous in scope, with a Mahler-sized orchestra and it draws from so many aspects of my musical life - classical, jazz and roots-style fiddling.  And as my husband Joe is a percussionist, yet another point of connection for me is that part of one of the 3 cadenzas features a bit of a jam with the principal percussionist.  I was thrilled to hear the score come to life around me, to be the first violinist to perform the work after the original dedicatee, the wonderful violinist Nicola Benedetti, and to receive standing ovations at each of the 3 performances at Overture Hall.  I play this piece not only from memory, but from a deep love of the score. Fingers crossed that I may be able to share the recording with you, but in any case, I look forward to performing it again soon- stay tuned!  In the mean time, I'm happy to share with you here the reviews, some concert photos, a conversation about the piece with conductor John DeMain and a great media piece from NBC15 of Madison.

I'm also thrilled that the Madison Symphony took a deep interest in my Music Kitchen Forgotten Voices World Premiere at Carnegie Hall.  Not only did they invite me to speak about it with members of the board and the media, but we just might see some of my new friends from Madison at Carnegie Hall!

Thank you so much for your interest in my work.  I look forward to seeing you soon.

Warm regards,

Kelly

The Reviews Are In:

“The shining star of this weekend’s program is Wynton Marsalis’s Violin Concerto, an unparalleled piece that reflects the composer’s diverse expertise in both jazz and classical idioms…Kelly Hall-Tompkins effortlessly synthesized the various musical traditions — folk, jazz, classical —  Along with breadth, this concerto demands depth, and Hall-Tompkins’s virtuosity was on display from the first to the final note…gorgeous ...a thrilling musical conversation… great expertise transitioning from lusciously sweet tones to wonderfully sour dissonances...”

      -The Cap Times, Matt Ambosio

"Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis is one of the world's great musicians and his “Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra” is probably going to go down as a masterpiece of 21st century music...violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins...did a wonderful job and the presentation was a big success...Hall-Tompkins played brilliantly."

-Channel 3000, Bill Wineke 

(Read the full articles here)

Media: NBC15 with John Stofflet

Click to watch

Conversation with Conductor John DeMain

About the Marsalis Concerto and More

Click to watch

Photos: Peter Rodgers, courtesy of Madison Symphony

Prairie View A&M University Selected as Recipient of Getty Images Grant to Uncover and Digitize Rarely Seen Imagery from its Archival Photographic Library

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (January 25, 2022) – Prairie View A&M University today announced it is one four recipients of the inaugural Getty Images Photo Archive Grant for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), an initiative aimed at preserving and amplifying the invaluable visual history of HBCUs.

Funding from the grant will support the digitization of roughly 50,000 rarely seen archival photographs from Prairie View A&M’s library. Including stories of migration movements, voting rights, housing displacement, injustices, Black women in politics, and Black family life within Texas communities. It also includes the legacy of Elnora Teal and the Teal Portrait Studio, a rare look into the work of a Black female photographer. Claflin University, Jackson State University and North Carolina Central University were also selected as recipients of the grant.

Launching today on gettyimages.com, the “HBCU Photo Collection” will house the HBCU content and will see thousands of images added throughout 2022. Archivists and librarians from Prairie View A&M University will work alongside Getty Images’ team of archivists and Adnet Global, a renowned post-production agency that specializes in the digitization, restoration and discoverability of visual analog historic libraries, in the photo digitization process. 

“The applications submitted for the Getty Images HBCU Photo Archive Grant prove the wealth of American history which has yet to be explored,” said Cassandra Illidge, VP of Partnerships at Getty Images. “Getty Images is proud to partner with archivists at each of the four HBCUs to uncover rarely seen photographs of Black culture and ensure these historical artifacts are preserved and accessible to storytellers around the world.  This year’s Grant is just the beginning of our work helping to preserve HBCUs history and our commitment to the HBCU community.”

Grant recipients will retain all copyright of their photos and once digitized, the historical content will be placed in a newly created stand-alone photo collection dubbed the “HBCU Photo Collection,” which will be made available for licensing in early 2022.

All revenue generated from the images that are preserved through the Grants will be funneled back into impact programs: 50 percent will go to grant recipients; 30 percent of revenue will be used for a financial donation to a scholarship fund focused on furthering the education of students at HBCUs; and 20 percent will be reinvested to fund the Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs each year.

The applications were judged by an esteemed panel which included:

• Dr. Deborah Willis, Academic Director, Professor & Chair at NYU Tisch School of the Arts

• Aba Blankson, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at NAACP

• Dr. Tukufu Zuberi, Professor of Sociology – The Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations at University of Pennsylvania

• Renata Cherlise, Founder of Blackarchives.co

• Raina Kelley, Vice President and Editor in Chief of The Undefeated

• Mercedes Cooper, Vice President, Public Programming at ARRAY

The Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs is part of Getty Images’ commitment to anti-racism, inclusion, and dismantling discrimination, including bringing to market unseen historical content and creating revenue streams for organizations working to build a more inclusive society. It is part of the company’s wider grants program, which has donated over US$1.8 million to photographers and videographers around the world since its inception.                                                                                                                                                            About Getty Images:

Getty Images is a preeminent global visual content creator and marketplace that offers a full range of content solutions to meet the needs of any customer around the globe, no matter their size. Through its Getty Images, iStock and Unsplash brands, websites and APIs, Getty Images serves over 1 million customers in almost every country in the world and is the first-place people turn to discover, purchase and share powerful visual content from the world’s best photographers and videographers. Getty Images works with over 450,000 contributors and more than 300 content partners to deliver this powerful and comprehensive content. Each year Getty Images covers more than 160,000 news, sport and entertainment events providing depth and breadth of coverage that is unmatched. Getty Images maintains one of the largest and best privately-owned photographic archives in the world with over 135 million images dating back to the beginning of photography.