Cedric Berry in 'George Gershwin: From Broadway to Catfish Row' July 26 Annenberg Community Beach House

[Cedric Berry]

BeachCulture72.eventbrite.com

7.26.2011

“George Gershwin: From Broadway to Catfish Row

Experience treasures from the Gershwin songbook, including selections from Porgy and Bess, with pianists and commentators Victoria Kirsch and Alan Chapman and vocalists Karen Benjamin, Shana Blake Hill, Cedric Berry and H. Waring Sharpe.

6.30 PM – 8.00 PM

Annenberg Community Beach House

415 Pacific Coast Hwy., Santa Monica, CA

“This concert is at capacity and our waitlist is now full. First choice of seats in the adjacent spillover room will go to those on the waitlist, then if there is room, to walk up guests. Depending on weather we may open the screen doors in the concert hall, in which case the concert can be experienced from outside.

“Cedric Berry (bass baritone) received his music diploma from Interlochen Arts Academy and both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Southern California. He has performed a variety of operatic roles including the title role in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Falstaff in Nicoli's Merry Wives, Lepporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflote, Collatinus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and Schaunard in Puccini’s La Boheme. Berry made his first European stage appearances in Spain, as Jake, in a concert version of Gershwin's Porgy & Bess. He appeared with LA Opera at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Savonlinna, Finland and sang a concert in tribute to Paul Robeson for the Banlieurs Bleues festival in Paris, France. He has been the recipient of several awards including first place in the Metropolitan Opera Western Region Competition.”

Dominique-René de Lerma: "I wonder what might be the story if 'Troubled island', as an example, had secured its proper place"

[Africa: Piano Music of William Grant Still; Denver Oldham, piano; Koch 3 7084 2H1 (1991)]

Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, whose website is http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com, is a leading Musicologist who has specialized in Composers of African Descent for four decades. He is principal advisor to AfriClassical.com, and compiled the comprehensive Works List for William Grant Still (1895-1978) which is featured at the website. He adds his thoughts to the discussion about William Grant Still and the music of George Gershwin:

“Had Black singers ever rejected being cast in Porgy and Bess the work might never have been performed, but it also has to be admitted that many of these might have had less of a career. I don't suggest that P&B sucked out all the oxygen, yet I wonder what might be the story if Troubled island, as an example, had secured its proper place in the repertoire. It might yet; it certainly deserves a major production -- and this might be forthcoming (see Judy Still's words below) [Prior Post]!

“Still's just concern for an appropriate representation of Black dignity reminds me of a comment Joe Eubanks made when he was about to take a year off from the faculty at Morgan for the Radio City production: He said very correctly that P&B was not at all within in him, that he was much more the king in Verdi's Don Carlo. He did, of course, accept the gig, just as he had done when the show toured Europe (with Leontyne Price and Bill Warfield).

"Elizabeth Greenfield, Sisserietta Jones, and Marian Anderson were lucky never to have been cast in the work. Can we picture Roland Hayes as Sportin' Life? This is not to say that I do not regard P&B as a major work. How might WGS have reacted to the rappers?"

Comments by email:

Randye Jones [Soprano and Researcher with website on Black Classical Vocal Music, http://www.randyejones.com/]
Greetings! I posted the forwarded noticed to the Facebook group on African American Art Song that Darryl Taylor runs and was stunned at the huge amount of discussion it generated, over 50 posts the last time I looked. My perspective without reading a convincing argument for such a boycott is to take a different tactic: to encourage colleagues to explore every option available to purchase, perform, and study works by African American composers. However, I also can't help but hope that these works become more readily available and not limited to one, or no, source. Randye

Judith Anne Still
The best argument for not doing Gershwin is that many a Black composer in Harlem died in poverty because good-old-George stole his music, while Gershwin made millions from his thefts. Then, PORGY is demeaning and unflattering, and it is now in the public domain, yet the Gershwin estate still takes money from people for performances. Lastly, a performer who does PORGY is dealing with stolen property. My beef is that Still's operas are not performed because PORGY is always done "instead of."

James P. Johnson shares 'Jazz Nocturne' CD with Harry Reser, George Gershwin & Dana Suesse on Naxos 8.559647

[Jazz Nocturne - American Concertos of the Jazz Age; Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra; Richard Rosenberg, conductor; Naxos 8.559647 (2011) (Cover painting: Piano Etude by Hugh Dunnahoe)]

Naxos says in the liner notes of this CD: “Arkansas' Hot Springs Music Festival pairs world-class mentors with talented pre-professional apprentices on full scholarship; the two groups play side by side in orchestral, chamber music, solo recital, vocal, choral and opera repertoire. For two weeks, these musicians form a unique community, presenting twenty concerts and over 250 open rehearsals for music lovers from across the globe. Over 20,000 people attend Festival events each year, and recordings from its concerts are broadcast nationwide via National Public Radio.”

The distinctive repertoire performed at the Hot Spring Music Festival and recorded in the Naxos American Classics series has been of great help to AfriClassical.com. The releases of the music of Edmond Dédé (1827-1903), Charles Lucien Lambert, Sr. (1828-1896) and Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert, Jr. (1858-1945) have made it possible to add each of the three composers to the website.

Richard Rosenberg conducts the Hot Springs Music Festival Symphony Orchestra in James P. Johnson's Yamekraw: A Negro Rhapsody, orchestrated by William Grant Still, the opening work on the CD Jazz Nocturne: American Concertos of the Jazz Age; Naxos 8.559647 (2011). He writes in the liner notes:

“This disc marks the première recording of the complete, final orchestral version of the work. As one of the first successful large-scale musical works by an African-American composer, Yamekraw thus played an important rôle in the development of American music in the twentieth century.”

The full-throated rendition of Yamekraw, in the final version orchestrated by William Grant Still, conveys the throbbing vitality of the Jazz Age. Harry Reser's Suite for Banjo and Orchestra provides a noticeable change of instrumentation. George Gershwin's A Rhapsody in Blue is the next work. The disc ends with the two works of Dana Suesse, a rarely-heard composer of the era whose presence is a reminder that the Jazz Age belonged to women composers as well as men.

Richard C. Alston Plays Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' at 'American Dreamers' Concert Feb. 12

[Richard C. Alston]

On Nov. 21 AfriClassical posted: “Ensemble du Monde in 'American Dreamers' Feb. 12: Gershwin, Barber, Copland, Still & Onovwerosuoke.” We have learned that pianist Richard C. Alston will perform at the concert as well.

“Ensemble du Monde presents ‘American Dreamers‘

concert in Black History Month features renowned director and producer Chapman Roberts (host) with special guest soprano Alison Buchanan and pianist Richard Alston:

“On February 12, 2011 at 8pm at Merkin Concert Hall, Ensemble du Monde will explore the diversity of American composers in Black History Month with a spectacular concert featuring iconic works of George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, William Grant Still and a world premiere by Fred Onovwerosuoke.

Music Director Marlon Daniel leads the orchestra. Also featured are critically acclaimed British soprano Alison Buchanan performing Barber’s Knoxville and Richard Alston in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Other guests include renowned director and producer Chapman Roberts and composer Fred Onovwerosuoke.

AMERICAN DREAMERS

Marlon Daniel, conductor & piano

Alison Buchanan, soprano

Richard Alston, piano

Chapman Roberts, host

ONOVWEROSUOKE New Work TBA (world premiere)

GRANT STILL Mother and Child

BARBER Knoxville: Summer of 1915

COPLAND Appalachian Spring*

GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue

*soloists: Crystal Zagarello - flute, Liz Player - clarinet, Susanne Chen - bassoon

Tickets are $50 (priority), $40 and $20 (seniors and students)

MERKIN CONCERT HALL | 129 West 67th Street NYC | (212) 501-3330

Buy tickets online at http://www.smarttix.com

Roy Eaton Plays Chopin, Joplin & Gershwin at Church of the Good Shepherd Nov. 16, 2:30 pm

Church of the Good Shepherd, Roosevelt Island
Monday, 20 October 2008

“Roy Eaton first performed in Carnegie Hall on Thursday, June 17,1937 as a Gold Medalist in a competition sponsored by the Music Education League of New York. Winner of the first Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Award in June 1950, he made his American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Chopin's F minor Concerto under George Schick in 1951. He was re-engaged to perform Beethoven's 4th concerto, and also made his New York Town Hall debut in 1952. His career was "temporarily" interrupted by two years in the U.S. Army, then approximately thirty years in advertising at Young & Rubicam, Benton & Bowles, and Roy Eaton Music. Roy Eaton’s life story is one of spiritual and creative triumph - overcoming significant difficulties and adversity. One of his missions has been to restore Scott Joplin's works to the domain that it was Joplin's intention that they live--as classical works in the tradition of the great European masters. He is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and performs in concert throughout the world. December 9, 2002 marked his return to Carnegie Hall as soloist with the N. Y. Pops Orchestra led by Skitch Henderson. His current featured recordings are Joplin: Piano Rags, Sony; The Complete Preludes Of Chopin, Gershwin, Still, Summit Records; and Keyboard Classics For Children, Summit Records.”  [Scott Joplin is profiled at AfriClassical.com]

Baltimore Sun: “Anne Wiggins Brown played Bess in original 'Porgy and Bess'”

From Douglass High to singing for Gershwin, Anne Wiggins Brown played Bess in original 'Porgy and Bess'

By Frederick N. Rasmussen | Sun reporter

March 2, 2008

Nearly 73 years have passed since Baltimorean Anne Wiggins Brown, who played the role of Bess in the original production of George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess, hauntingly sang "Summertime" before an audience seated in New York's Alvin Theatre.

Broadway was a long way from Brown's girlhood home at 1501 Presstman St. She was born in Baltimore in 1912 or 1915 (there is slight variance on the exact date and month), the oldest of four daughters.

Her father was Dr. Harry Francis Brown, a physician and grandson of a slave, and her mother, Mary Allen Wiggins, whose parents were of Scottish-Irish, black and Cherokee Indian descent, sang and played piano.

As a student at the old Frederick Douglass High School on Dolphin Street, Brown studied with the legendary music teacher W. Llewellyn Wilson, who counted among his students Cab Calloway.

Through her years at Douglass, Brown had leading roles in the musicals and plays that were staged and directed annually by Wilson.

"Ms. Brown maintains she always knew she would be a performer. As a child she dreamed of becoming an actress but was discouraged by the prospect of a lifetime of roles as a domestic - the only parts offered to black women then," wrote Elizabeth Schaaf, archivist and curator at the Peabody Institute, in a 1998 article in The Sun.

"Music offered brighter prospects for Ms. Brown, who enjoyed playing her family's grand piano and listening to classical music records," Schaaf wrote.

When Brown applied to the Peabody Conservatory, she was refused entrance because of her race, so at the urging of a Baltimore benefactor, she applied to the Juilliard School of Music, and at 16, became the first black vocalist to be admitted to the school.

"We tough girls tough it out," Brown told The New York Times in a 1998 interview. "I've lived a strange kind of life - half black, half white, half isolated, half in the spotlight. Many things that I wanted as a young person for my career were denied me because of my color," she said. Full Article