Urban Views Weekly: Undine Moore Was 'greatest musical inspiration' of Pianist James Pettis

[James Pettis (Photo from UrbanViewsWeekly.com)]

UrbanViewsWeekly.com

by Cesca Janece Waterfield
March 17, 2010

“After 50 Years, Concert Pianist James Pettis is Breaking Ground Again

Where you’ve heard him: Recipient of an NAACP Freedom Award, James plays piano for many official city and state events. He appeared numerous times on the long-running CBS soap opera, 'Guiding Light.' He’s accompanied James Earl Jones and played for photographer, journalist and film director, Gordon Parks. He was recently honored in Detroit as the recipient of the E. Azalia Hackley Award and filled auditoriums in both the Motor City and Chicago. Sitting before his piano at home in Northside, James recalls with a resonant laugh, 'As I entered the front door, every floor that I went on, I saw my poster. It was a mind-blowing experience. It was packed and it went over quite well.' Last October at the Henrico Theatre, he celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his public debut.

“Overture: The son of Estelle and James Pettis Sr., James was a protégé, stunning teachers with his natural abilities in piano. At only 5 years old, he began studying with pianist Janie P. Hill. Then he met who he calls his 'single greatest musical inspiration:' Dr. Undine Moore of Virginia State University. As a teen, he won many piano competitions, including one at Virginia State University while he was still a student at Armstrong High School. Each summer during high school, he studied at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. After graduating high school in 1968, he was awarded a scholarship to The Juilliard School in New York City and studied under internationally renowned pianist, Eugene List, graduating in 1973.

“In fine company: James holds the distinction of being the first African American concert pianist invited to perform on the Queen Elizabeth II. 'After you ate dinner in your tux, you came to hear Jim Pettis,' he recalls. 'I did that three days and three nights a week for two years.'” “His new show: James was recently asked by PBS Television to develop a series of instructional programs for piano. He explains: 'The title is “Piano 101”. It’s basically a half hour weekly show in 13 parts. I’m going to develop that. I’m going to copyright it and get a distributor. But I’m going to control my art. In other words, I’m going to control my destiny. It should be ready around June. I’m going to sell the DVDs and the whole works.'”

Richmond Choral Society: Songs of Undine Smith Moore on March 21

[Undine Smith Moore]

RichmondChoralSociety.org

Women of Note

“The Chorus That Gives Back to the Community”

Featuring Choral Music & Art Songs by Alice Parker, Emma Lou Diemer, Gwyneth Walker and African-American Composer Undine Smith Moore

Markus Compton, conductor

Lisa Edwards-Burrs, soprano

Keith Tan, piano

Sunday, March 21 at 4 P.M.

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church

520 North Boulevard

Richmond

The concert will be preceded by a talk with soprano Lisa Edwards-Burrs at 3:30. This concert is presented as part of the statewide initiative, Minds Wide Open: Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts"
Undine Smith Moore: "Oh, that Bleeding Lamb", "I Believe This is Jesus"

Undine Smith Moore

http://www.lva.lib.va.us/whoweare/exhibits/destiny/notable/smith.htm

“Often referred to as the 'Dean of Black Women Composers,' Moore began composing while at Fisk University. Although she composed works for piano and for other instrumental groups, Moore is best known for her choral works, including Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, based on the works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.” Author Helen Walker-Hill devotes a scholarly 40-page chapter to Undine Smith Moore in her book From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music, University of Illinois Press (2007).

Akron Youth Orchestras & Texarkana Symphony Play Music of William Grant Still Feb. 8

[Afro-American Symphony; William Grant Still; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Karl Kruger, conductor; Bridge 9086 (1999)]

Music of William Grant Still will be heard in two different locales on Sunday, February 8, 2009. The Akron Youth Orchestras will perform Still's Symphony No. 1 (Afro-American), his best known symphonic work. The above recording by the Royal Philharmonic is only one of many CDs of the composition. At Texarkana, Arkansas, works of William Grant Still will accompany those of other African American composers, including William Levi Dawson, Moses Hogan and Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989), a Virginia native who was a professor of Music at Virginia State University for more than four decades.

Akron.com

“The Akron Youth Orchestras, which is the Akron Youth Symphony and the Akron Youth Philharmonic, will perform at a free concert Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. at E.J. Thomas. The program will feature William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 'Afro-American.' Still was an African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. He was the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra and the first to have a symphony of his own (his first symphony) performed by a leading orchestra.”

TexarkanaGazette.com 

“The Lonoke Baptist Church Choir, the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, and Texarkana Regional Chorale will team up for a concert on Sunday, Feb. 8, 6 p.m. at the Lonoke Baptist Church in Texarkana, Ark. Traditional African-American classical compositions will be performed with music from, among others, Undine Moore, William Dawson, Moses Hogan and William Grant Still. Poetry will also become a part of the festivities.” [William Grant Still (1895-1978) and William Levi Dawson (1899-1990) are profiled at AfriClassical.com]

"Dance Like the Wind: Music of Today's Black Composers" by Dominique-René de Lerma

Introduction
This is the conclusion of a four-part review by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, an oboist and musicologist who is Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and has specialized in Black classical music for four decades. The review of the series of four CDs appears in the August 2007 eNewsletter of the Myrtle Hart Society and is used by permission of its Founder/Director, Rashida Black, who is also a harpist.

Witness, the soul of American music
By Dominique-René de Lerma; Part 4 of 4

Dance like the wind; Music of today's Black composers
VocalEssence Ensemble; Philip Brunelle, conductor; liner notes by Dominique-René de Lerma; texts; series note; performer bios.

Baker, David. Images, shadows, and dreams. VocalEssence Chorus; Michele Frisch, flute; Chris Kachian, guitar; Charles Kemper, piano; Greg Hippen, double bass; Robert Stacke, drums. (17:14).
Banfield, William. Dance like the wind. Michele Frisch, flute; Kathy Robison, oboe; Joseph Longo, clarinet; Paul Straka, horn; Kevin Coria, bassoon. (9: 45).
Childs, Billy. Piece for string orchestra. 2. Slow. 3. Fast. ( 13:03).
Hailstork, Adolphus. Nocturne. Maria Jette, soprano. (6:59).
Moore, Undine Smith. Mother to son. Yolanda Williams, soprano. (2:41).
Moore, Undine Smith. We shall walk through the valley. (2:54).
Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor. Lamentations; Black folk song suite. 2. Song form. 4. Perpetual motion. Anthony Elliott, cello. (7:13).
Simpson-Currenton, Evelyn. My soul hath found refuge in thee. Dan Dressen, tenor. (4:54).

If we wonder who is Michael Abels for want of a richer discography, that question may also be raised in the case of David Baker, although his very extensive recorded oeuvre is no excuse. Is there any composer who is so comfortably all over the place? A violin concerto for Josef Gingold with jazz band, a cello sonata for Janos Starker, 12-tone jazz, song cycles, cantatas, liturgical jazz, jivey pieces for string ensemble… is the whole world of music his?

Clearly a most important figure of his generation, Banfield takes films seriously, and his offering here is in direct response to Cat on a hot tin roof, for woodwind quintet.

The senior figure here is Undine Smith Moore, whose career as a major music educator was dedicated to Virginia State University. In the final decades of her life, her choral works began to receive substantial attention.

No longer with us is another giant in Perkinson, composer for films, orchestra and chamber groups, and a conductor of real substance. His contribution here provides an opportunity to hear the work of Anthony Elliott, whose tenure at the University of Michigan followed years of substantial experience as principal cellist with major orchestras in the US and Canada.

The Simpson dynasty flourished from Temple Evangelical Church in Philadelphia – first in the person of Joy Simpson, whose death while protesting apartheid in South Africa deprived us of a voice, equally comfortable with opera as with gospel music. Her career lasted long enough to be joined with Marietta, a mezzo-soprano whose career evolved in international importance. The third member of the family is a most remarkable musician whose imaginative settings of spirituals are unquestionably first-rate.

This set of four CDs belongs readily in any university or public library. It illustrates, not only a chunk of African American legacy, but demonstrates the enviable musical forces available within Minnesota's Twin Cities. The conductor, who as musicologist is acutely aware of the monuments of the history he is tracing here, and he has at his command an exemplary assemblage of splendid choristers and instrumentalists. With these recordings, all of this can be shared with a large and appreciative audience.