'I am changing my position from your Teacher, to your Worldwide Advocate in the Arts.'

[Jessie Montgomery]

AfriClassical has followed the violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery for some time as she served as a Violinist-in-Residence with the Providence String Quartet and Community MusicWorks of Providence, Rhode Island. Now she has returned to New York City to study composition:
August 11, 2009
CommunityMusicWorks.org
“Good luck Jessie, and we'll miss you!
Community MusicWorks staff, students, and board bid a very fond farewell to Jessie Montgomery who, after five years in Providence, has relocated to New York City to pursue her dreams as a composer. Below is an excerpt from Jessie's recent letter to her violin and Music Lab students.

“Dear Students,
“This spring marks the end of my term here as your teacher at Community MusicWorks. I want to send my personal farewell to you all and I want for you to know that I will miss you very, very much. I am going to move back to New York City, my hometown, to focus on new creative projects in composition and to team up with old friends in music.

“I am planning to attend school again for a higher degree, to learn to compose music for movies and TV and for the many musicians who live in New York. As you know, I have been composing music the whole time I have been here, and now I want to spend as much time doing that as possible so that I can share even more of my music with even more people.

“New York City is really not that far away, after all, and Sebastian even has me signed up next year for a concert or two already! So this is not a 'goodbye forever' goodbye. Just think of it as if I am changing my position from your Teacher, to your Worldwide Advocate in the Arts. If there is ANYTHING you need as you go through your studies that connects you to places beyond Providence, I will do anything I can to help.
Your adoring Teacher and Friend,
Jessie”

Detroit Free Press: 'Former winner Elena Urioste to solo at Sphinx competition'

[Elena Urioste]

BY MARK STRYKER • FREE PRESS MUSIC WRITER • January 25, 2009
At 22, violinist Elena Urioste is still studying at the Juilliard School, but she's on a fast track. With professional management behind her, she has embarked on a solo career. This week Urioste returns to Detroit for the 12th annual Sphinx Competition for young African-American and Latino string players, the launching pad for her success. Urioste won the Sphinx junior division in 2003 and the senior division in 2007. At this year's event, she'll team up with another former Sphinx winner, Melissa White, at next Sunday's Finals Concert. The pair will perform part of Prokofiev's Sonata for Two Violins. The Sphinx competition, founded by MacArthur fellow Aaron Dworkin, has become a signature national event for its efforts to promote minorities in classical music. The competition doles out more than $100,000 annually in prizes, scholarships and performance opportunities. [Full Post] [The Founder/President of The Sphinx Organization is violinist Aaron P. Dworkin, who is profiled as a Musician of African Descent at AfriClassical.com]

HomeToHarlem.com: “Clarence Cameron White, Violinist and Classical Composer”

HomeToHarlem.com maintains a home page for “Clarence Cameron White / Violinist and Classical Composer (1879 – 1960)”. The following are excerpts:

“Violinist and classical composer Clarence Cameron White was born in Clarksville, Tenn., and spent his childhood in Oberlin, Ohio, Chattanooga, Tenn., and Washington, D.C. He began studying the violin at the age of eight and wrote his first composition for violin and piano at age fourteen. After graduating from Howard University, White entered the Oberlin Conservatory in 1896 and graduated in 1901.

He continued his studies and performed in Boston, New Haven, and New York where he drew the attention of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Harry T. Burleigh, and Booker T. Washington. In 1903 he was invited to join the Washington [D.C.] Conservatory, and he also later taught in public schools there. In the following year he met African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with whom he studied in London in 1906 and again in 1908-11. After performing throughout Europe he established a studio in Boston where he conducted the Victoria Concert Orchestra from 1914 until 1924.”

“Strongly influenced by folk music, White composed violin and orchestral work, and arranged African-American spirituals. Notable are his Symphony in D Minor, an orchestral piece entitled Elegy, the ballet score A Night in Sans Souci, and a cantata, Heritage, which was performed at the Church of the Master shortly before his death.” Full Biography