Pianist William Chapman Nyaho Performs at Festival on Hornby Island, British Columbia April 2

[Dr. William Chapman Nyaho]

HarbourLiving.ca
“Hornby Festival Presents: William Chapman Nyaho
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
Door at 6:30pm, pre-show chat at 7pm Performance at 8pm
Classical pianist, William Chapman Nyaho, a Ghanaian American, is well known as a researcher and performer of classical music by composers of African descent. His solo CD 'Senku: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent,' is a groundbreaking compilation of music of the African Diaspora. Gramophone Magazine said, 'Nyaho’s gripping performances kept my ears glued to this disc. Let’s hope the pianist continues to explore - and record - more such commanding repertoire.' A recipient of many prizes from international piano competitions, Chapman Nyaho has performed in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and throughout North America, including Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. He has been soloist with various orchestras and as chamber musician. Following four years as a North Carolina Visiting Artist, Chapman Nyaho taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and was the recipient of the Distinguished Professor Award and held the Heymann Endowed Professorship. He was also the recipient of the Acadiana Arts Council Distinguished Artist Award. [William Chapman Nyaho (b. 1958) is profiled at AfriClassical.com and has a personal website, http://www.Nyaho.com]

Terrence Wilson & Dr. William Chapman Nyaho Comment On 'Metropolis' CD Post

["Michael Daugherty Metropolis Symphony"; Terrence Wilson, pianist; Nashville Symphony; Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor; Naxos (2009)]

Yesterday AfriClassical posted “Favorably reviewed for his Rachmaninoff 3, Terrence Wilson Has Naxos CD Coming September 29.” Rashida Black, Founder/Executive Director of The Myrtle Hart Society, told us The Winston-Salem Journal had reviewed a concert Terrence had given with the Winston-Salem Symphony on Sunday. We also announced that on Sept. 29, 2009 Naxos will release a Michael Daugherty CD on which Terrence Wilson is pianist. One of the works is “Deus ex Machina”, written expressly for him and commissioned by a consortium of U.S. orchestras. Naxos says that work has three movements:
I. Fast Forward (Di andata veloce) - 07:40
II. Train of Tears – 14:17
III. Night Steam – 11:22

Today AfriClassical has received two comments on the post by email. The first came from the pianist himself:
Hello Bill,
Thank you very much!
Sincerely,
Terrence Wilson

A second comment was addressed to both AfriClassical and Terrence Wilson by Dr. William Chapman Nyaho, an African American pianist, educator and of Ghanaian heritage who was born in Washington, D.C., but was raised in Ghana. He has recorded two CDs, "Senku: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent", MSR MS 1091 (2003); and "ASA: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent", MSR MS 1242 (2008). Dr. Nyaho has also compiled and edited a landmark 5-volume work of sheet music, published by Oxford University Press, "Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora". He is profiled at Nyaho.com and AfriClassical.com:
Greetings Terrence
Wonderful hearing about you. Congratulations on the upcoming release! I will be looking for it! Looking forward to hearing more about you.
best regards
Nyaho

Margaret A. Bonds, African American Composer & Pianist Born March 3, 1913

Margaret Allison Richardson Bonds was an African American composer, pianist and musical director who was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 3, 1913. Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor of Music at Lawrence University has kindly made his research entry on Margaret Bonds available to AfriClassical.com: “She was born in Chicago as Margaret Jeanette Allison Majors to Dr. Monroe Majors and Estella C. Bonds...”. “Her parents separated in 1915 and, when her parents divorced in 1917, her mother resumed her birth name, assigning this also to her daughter.” “By the time she had begun the study of composition in 1926 with Chicago newcomers William Dawson and Florence Price (with whom she also studied piano), she was a charter member of the Junior Music Division of the National Association of Negro Musicians, and had been a student at the Coleridge-Taylor Music School, where her mother and Tom Theodore Taylor served on the faculty.” Bonds entered Northwestern University at 16, in 1929, and studied piano and composition. Dr. De Lerma continues: “A Rosenwald Scholarship was awarded for graduate study at Northwestern in 1933, when she had been awarded the B.M. degree.”

Prof. Rae Linda Brown wrote the liner notes for the CD Black Diamonds: Althea Waites Plays Music By African-American Composers, Cambria 1097 (1993): “Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) achieved national recognition when she won the Wanamaker Prize in 1932 for the song Sea Ghost, the same contest in which her teacher, Florence Price, received her coveted awards.” Dr. De Lerma relates: “She gave her debut in Town Hall on 7 February 1932...”. “She was pianist with the Chicago Women’s Orchestra the next year in the D minor concerto of Florence Price, conducted by Ebba Sundstrom and broadcast on CBS. She now had her M.M. degree from Northwestern (1934) and had already performed John Alden Carpenter’s concertino with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933, with Frederick Stock as conductor.”

A look at AfriClassical posts on Margaret Bonds in the past year shows her music is very much a part of contemporary performances and recordings. On June 8, 2008 we wrote of Gerald Blanchard's new CD With A Song In My Heart, which includes The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Bonds, Blue Griffin Records BGR 117. An Aug. 21, 2008 post announced “Art Song: 56^th Annual Noon Concert Series” at U.C. Berkeley, at which music of Margaret Bonds was among the works performed by Angela Arnold, soprano; and Jeffrey Sykes, piano. Others who performed the composer's works last year included Lesa Terry and the Women's Jazz Orchestra, and the Berklee College of Music. We also posted a review of Vol. 4 of Piano Music of Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Dr. William Chapman Nyaho and including music of Margaret Bonds.

William H. Chapman Nyaho Gives Mixed-Media Presentation & Master Class at Loyola Marymount University

Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles Announces:

As part of a month-long series of activities honoring Black History Month, Loyola Marymount University is hosting a mixed-media presentation and master class delivered by world-renowned composer and pianist William Chapman Nyaho. The two events will be held on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 12:15 p.m. and 7 p.m. in Murphy Recital Hall.

The afternoon event will include a mixed-media presentation about African pop music as a resource for African art. A question and answer session will immediately follow. In the evening event, Nyaho will lead a master class with piano students featuring works by Ghanaian and Nigerian composers.

Nyaho is internationally known for the range and artistry of his performances and is the editor of a recently published five-volume anthology of music for solo piano by composers from Africa and the African Diaspora.

[Dr. William H. Chapman Nyaho's website is http://www.nyaho.com/ He is also profiled at AfriClassical.com]