Morgan State University: Sweet Honey in the Rock comes to Murphy Fine Arts Center on Friday, March 8, 2013 at 8PM!

Dr. Eric Conway of Morgan State University writes:

Hello everyone,

Morgan's Fine and Performing Arts Department will present Sweet Honey in the Rock in concert on this Friday, March 8, 2013 8PM in the Gilliam Concert Hall at the Murphy Fine Arts Center.  There are still plenty of good seats available for this acclaimed group.  Tickets may be purchased via TICKETMASTER® or the Murphy Fine Arts Center box office.  Hope to see you at the concert!

Click on link below to take you directly to the Ticketmaster website for the concert:

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1500498C83463480?artistid=734118&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=52

Click on link below for more information about Sweet Honey!

http://imnworld.com/artists/detail/197/SWEET-HONEY-IN-THE-ROCK

Eric Conway, D.M.A.

Fine and Performing Arts Department, Chairperson

Morgan State University

Retweeted by
Marlissa Hudson @marlissahudson
To 757 followers 

.

Dr. Polli Chambers-Salazar Records Waltz-Suite 'Three-Fours' of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor on CD 'First Flight'

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

Dr. Polli Chambers-Salazar

First Flight; Polli Chambers-Salazar, Piano;
Three-Fours; Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works List  by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.  Here is the entry on the composer's work Three-Fours, a waltz-suite for piano:




Three-fours, op. 71, valse-suite for piano (1909). London: Augener, 1909. 25p. (Augener's edition, 6073; #13895). 1. Allegro molto; A minor; 2, Andante,A-flat; 3, Allegro moderato, G minor; 4. Vivace, D; 5. Andante molto; 6. Allegro assai. Duration: 18m. Dedication: Myrtle Meggy. Library: Peabody, Schomburg, Spingarn.

John Malveaux of www.MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

After attending a convincing performance of Felix Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 in g minor, Op.25 by pianist Polli Chambers-Salazar and the El Camino College Symphony Orchestra on Sunday March 3, 2013, I went backstage and invited Dr. Chambers-Salazar to perform the Coleridge-Taylor piece from her solo piano CD titled ‘FIRST FLIGHT’ during the 50^th Anniversary Concert of the MARCH on Washington/Dr. King’s ‘I HAVE A DREAM’ speech, 3:00PM, August 18, 2013 at the AT&T Center Theater/Auditorium. KUSC Classical radio 91.5FM, www.KUSC.org is media sponsor. 

Dr. Chambers-Salazar was the piano accompanist for Grammy winning Baritone Donnie Ray Albert during last year’s 150^th Anniversary Emancipation Proclamation Concert and she demonstrated admirable team spirit. When piano accompanist Althea Waites was unable to attend a sound check for Violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama and Tenor George Shirley, Dr. Chambers-Salazar volunteered to arrive at the AT&T Center Theater/Auditorium prior to her scheduled sound check with Donnie to accompany Nokuthula and Shirley for their sound checks.  

Dr. Chambers-Salazar received her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from University of Southern California and joined the keyboard faculty of El Camino College in 2008, serving as Director of Piano Studies. Previously she served on the keyboard faculty of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Dr. Chambers-Salazar CD is available for purchase in the Norton Simon Museum and via her website http://webpages.charter.net/polli/mymusic.htm

Pianist Richard C. Alston Interviewed on 'The Core Business Show With Tim Jacquet' on BlogTalk Radio

Richard C. Alston

Richard C. Alston:

Hello Family and Friends,

I had a very enjoyable time being interview by Timothy Jacquet for the Core Business Show. We discussed my thoughts on Van Cliburn, Teaching Piano, and Advice for Music Students and the Parents of Music Students. Mr. Jacquet included recordings of 3 of my performances. I hope you enjoy!

 

Please copy and paste the link below to hear the interview. 

Musically,

Richard

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/applecapitalgroup/2013/03/01/interviewing-concert-pianist-richard-alston-1#.UTPxIeAOnbs.email  [71:49]

Multnomah County Library: Maya Angelou writes “There is obviously poetry in the orchestral conducting of James DePreist..."

James DePreist (1936-2013)

Multnomah County Library
Poetry of James DePreist
Phoebe W.  February 26, 2013

As we celebrate the life of former Oregon Symphony director James DePreist, let’s note that in addition to all his incredible work with orchestras around the world, and a 2005 National Medal of Arts, he also wrote two books of poetry!

William Stafford contributed the afterword to DePreist’s first book, This Precipice Garden (1986). He describes DePreist’s confident presence as conductor, and compares this with the voice of the poems: “When he turns to the different rhythm of his poems, it is as if James DePreist puts that hovering attention to a parallel task; again the inner light finds which way to go amid infinite, shifting possibilities. Here, however, there is a record in language of the course taken. The reader can follow in slow motion and see how the self proceeds along a tangled path.”

Maya Angelou writes of DePreist, in her foreword to his book The Distant Siren (1989), “There is obviously poetry in the orchestral conducting of James DePreist and audible musicality in the poetry of James DePreist. His second collection of poetry has the tautness of a perfectly pitched viola and much of its resonance.”

Retweeted by
Marlissa Hudson @marlissahudson
To 759 followers

BlackPastBlog.org: 'Traditional Aesthetics, Contemporary Art, Recycling'

Kuba Cloth 5

A Gee's Bend Quilt

Kuba Cloth Pillow

BlackPast.org Blog

Hazel Singer

Friday, March 1, 2013

Traditional Aesthetics, Contemporary Art, Recycling
A mission of BlackPast.org is to know and understand the past in order to make sense of the present, so that we may move forward with knowledge, purpose, and clarity of thought. Artists do this as part of their craft. Some work in traditional formats (painting, sculpting, writing, weaving, potting) using old techniques; others experiment. Some artists create entirely new media in which to express their thoughts and comments about the times and places in which they reside. Regardless, there is no getting away from the past whether they/we embrace, rebel, or think we can ignore it.

This process is exemplified by looking at Kuba cloth made across central Africa; quilts made in Gee"s Bend,Alabama; clothing fabric in Ghana; and at a solo exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, NYC of work by the artist El Anatsui of Ghana. The notion of recycling also enters into this discussion: ideas being recycled into different aesthetics/forms; re-using materials to create new art.
Kuba textiles are "woven from the fib of the Raphia Vinifera Palm. Production of these textiles is a multiple stage process which involves the participation of children, men and women of the same clan. The process includes gathering and preparing the raffia fibers for weaving and embroidery, weaving the basic cloth unit, dyeing the embroidery fibers, and embellishing the woven cloth with embroidery, applique, patchwork and dye." The cloths are made in a variety of rectangles and squares that can be combined to make skirts and coverings, household uses of various types. As people's body shapes change (e.g. pregnancy) or sections of a large item wear out, recycling takes place as new sections are added.

The women of Gee's Bend have been making quilts for generations. By definition, a quilt is made from recycled fabric and clothing items. Quilts are also an excellent medium for telling a family's story. These women have had their quilts exhibited all across the country, from major art museums to galleries in Seattle. 

The Times: James DePreist, 'Indomitable conductor who fought racial prejudice and health problems to become one of America's most eminent orchestra leaders'

DePreist: he charmed philanthropists throughout Portland into supporting the provision of a new concert hall

Anthony Barboza/Getty Images

James DePreist

Indomitable conductor who fought racial prejudice and health problems to become one of America’s most eminent orchestra leaders

Overcoming serial health problems and racial barriers, James DePreist was one of the first major African-American conductors. But he preferred to be judged for his musical achievements, transforming the Oregon Symphony from a fair, part-time, regional orchestra into a nationally recognised ensemble

[James DePreist (1936-2013) is featured at AfriClassical.com]

Washington Post: 'Jeffrey Mumford rightly vaunted by National Gallery of Art as composer-in-residence'

Jeffrey Mumford
(Ronald Jantz)

Violist Eliesha Nelson sends this link:

The Washington Post

By Stephen Brookes, February 04, 2013

Jeffrey Mumford is the composer-in-residence at the National Gallery of Art this year, and it’s a fitting distinction, given that Mumford is a native of the District and has long been a central figure in the small-but-feisty contemporary music scene here. The gallery is mounting three concerts this month to celebrate Mumford’s music, and the first — performed in the East Building on Sunday night by the museum’s New Music Ensemble — offered an illuminating glimpse into the composer’s complex and richly imaginative music, in which an almost romantic sensibility seems to radiate through a thoroughly contemporary surface.

Soprano Latonia Moore Sings Title Role of 'Aida' April 23, 2013 With San Diego Opera Company

Latonia Moore
(Copyright Dallas Kilponen)

John Malveaux of www.MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

John Malveaux and guests have purchased tickets to see Soprano Latonia Moore in lead role of AIDA with the San Diego Opera Company on  April 23, 2013. Ms. Moore will perform AIDA in Tokyo before San Diego engagement.

 

See http://www.askonasholt.co.uk/artists/singers/soprano/latonia-moore

 

John Malveaux

www.musicuntold.com

Margaret A. Bonds, African American Composer & Pianist Born March 3, 1913; Symposium Observes Centennial at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

[Margaret Allison Bonds]

March 3, 2013 is the Centennial of the birth of Margaret Allison Bonds, the composer and pianist who was the first African-American soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is hosting a March 2–3 Symposium: Margaret Bonds and the Women of the Chicago Renaissance.

The AfriClassical.com page on Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) makes extensive use of the research of Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com, who has compiled a comprehensive Works List for her.  Prof. De Lerma tells us the composer was born in Chicago on March 3, 1913. Margaret was 4 when her parents divorced, Prof. De Lerma relates. At the age of 13 she began studying composition with William Levi Dawson and Florence B. Price, with whom she also studied piano.

Bonds entered Northwestern University at 16, in 1929. Prof. Rae Linda Brown wrote the liner notes for the CD Black Diamonds: Althea Waites Plays Music By African-American Composers, Cambria 1097 (1993). She describes the importance of the Wanamaker Prize Bonds won in 1932 for her composition Sea Ghost: “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.”

In 1933 Bonds made history as the first African American soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Maya Angelou is the author of the liner notes for William Chapman Nyaho's CD, Senku: Piano Music by Composers of African Descent; Music Masters 1091 (2003). She writes of the activities of Bonds after finishing her studies at Northwestern University: “Upon graduation, Margaret Bonds worked in Chicago performing, composing and collaborating with writer and poet, Langston Hughes in cantatas, musicals and song cycles.”

On Dec. 4, 2010 Al Rudis wrote in the Long Beach Press-Telegram: “The famous poet and the lesser-known composer collaborated on a work for piano and voice called 'The Ballad of the Brown King,' which Bonds later made into a cantata for full chorus, soloists and orchestra. It premiered in December 1954, in New York City, and for a while it was performed a lot, mostly in churches. Then it sort of disappeared. Fast-forward half a century to 2010 in Long Beach, and the cantata is once again part of the Christmas season, thanks to the Long Beach Chorale, which performs it Saturday and Dec. 12 at Grace Presbyterian Church.”

Margaret Bonds taught theater in both Harlem and Los Angeles, where she moved in 1967. She remained there until her death in 1972. Her best known work is the piano composition Troubled Water, which is found on numerous recordings, including Senku.

Afro-Cuban Pianist Felix Spengler Performs Solo and with Violinist Misha Vitenson at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, NYC April 13, 2013 8 PM