'Listen Magazine': Aaron Dworkin Among 'Today's Top 15 Classical Music Ambassadors.'

[Illustrations of cover and of Aaron P. Dworkin by Yuko Shimizu, Listen, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2010]

ListenMusicMag.com
Listen: Life With Classical Music is a relatively young magazine of Classical Music. The latest issue is Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2010. The magazine has made its presence felt like a breath of fresh air in the established media devoted to Classical Music. The current issue is 80 oversized pages of glossy photos, large pictures of CD cover art, and stories which blend the provocative and the informative. The just-released Summer 2010 issue has as its cover story: Most Inspiring: Today's Top 15 Classical Music Ambassadors.
“Aaron Dworkin founded the annual Sphinx Competition for black and Latino string players a dozen years ago to address the minuscule number of minorities in classical music. Personal experience drove home the point: As a violinist, he was almost always the only African-American in his school orchestras growing up in New York. As a graduate student at the University of Michigan he decided to act upon the isolation he felt. The impact has been swift and wide-ranging.

“Some Sphinx alums have been finalists in international competitions, and others have won spots at Juilliard, Curtis and other top conservatories. In recent months, the best and brightest Sphinx artists have appeared on The Today Show and Good Morning America and have been received at the White House.” [Aaron P. Dworkin (b. 1970) is an African American violinist who is profiled at AfriClassical.com. His creative interests are expressed at his website http://www.Ethnovibe.com, where the items offered include Aaron's autobiography, They Said I Wasn't Really Black.]

"H. Leslie Adams Listening Party" Returns Sept. 9, 2007

Music of the African American composer H. Leslie Adams for voice, piano, string quartet and cello will be heard on Sept. 9, 2007 in "H. Leslie Adams: A Listening Party, Return Engagement". Featured performers will be the Cavani String Quartet; Maria Corley, piano; Darryl Taylor, countertenor; William Clarence Marshall, bass; and Kent Collier, cello. The location is the Greg Reese Performing Arts Center, East Cleveland Library, 14101 Euclid Avenue, East Cleveland, Ohio. Phone: 216-541-4128. Admission is $10.

Pictured above are Greg L. Reese, Executive Director, East Cleveland Public Library (far left); Maria Corley, pianist (3rd from left); Kent Collier, cellist (4th from right); Darryl Taylor, countertenor (2nd from right); Jonathan Stuckey, bass (far right); H. Leslie Adams, composer (center); Cavani String Quartet (in purple jackets).

H. Leslie Adams lives in Cleveland, where he was born in 1932. He is a composer, pianist and professor whose career as a professor of music and a choral director has been quite varied. His page at www.AfriClassical.com includes links to six sound samples. Five are from Love Rejoices: Songs of H. Leslie Adams, recorded by Darryl Taylor, tenor, and Robin Guy, piano, on Albany Records Troy 428 (2000). The sixth audio excerpt is from Twelve Etudes, performed by pianist Maria Corley on Albany Records Troy 639 (2004).