Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Florence Price

William Grant Still & Black Composers in NJ

It’s a banner day for William Grant Still in the Trenton-Princeton area.

As I posted only a short while ago, Still’s “Afro-American Symphony” will be the featured highlight on “The Lost Chord,” tonight at 10:00 on WWFM The Classical Network and wwfm.org, as I conclude my month-long survey of highlights from the reissued Black Composers Series on Sony Classical.

Another of Still’s symphonies – the much less frequently heard (read NEVER) Symphony No. 4, subtitled “Autochthonous” – will be performed by the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey at Trenton’s Patriots Theater at the War Memorial this afternoon at 4:00. The concert will also include the recently rediscovered Violin Concerto No. 1 by Florence Price and, as an added bonus, Adolphus Hailstork’s “Celebration.”

My preview of this exciting program is in the current edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo. I know I posted about it earlier in the week, but I thought it would be helpful to mention it again, not least because the last time I failed to notice that I didn’t include a link until about five hours after! So here it is again.

https://princetoninfo.com/african-american-composers-shine-in-trenton/

The so-called “Dean of Afro-American composers,” Still lived from 1895 to 1978. He was a “first” in many ways. His was the first symphony written by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra (the New York Philharmonic). He was the first to be given the opportunity to conduct a major orchestra (the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Hollywood Bowl). His opera, “Troubled Island,” became the first to be produced by a major company (the New York City Opera). His works were performed internationally by the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony, and the Tokyo Philharmonic.

Similarly, Florence Price, who lived from 1887 to 1953, was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have her music performed by a major orchestra (the Chicago Symphony). Her violin concerto was among a stash of manuscripts rescued from her dilapidated summer home as recently as 2009. This afternoon’s performance by the Capital Philharmonic will be the work’s East Coast premiere, and possibly only the second time it has ever been heard in public.

This is the rare concert that is more than just a concert.

Tickets are still available through the orchestra’s website, capitalphilharmonic.org.

February 24, 2019
Price & Still Overcoming Barriers in Trenton

American composers have always had it tough. And in the golden age of American classical music, composers of color had it especially bad.

Two of them will be featured on an ambitious program to be performed by the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey at Trenton’s Patriots Theater at the War Memorial this Sunday at 4 p.m. Daniel Spalding will conduct Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 1, with Samuel Thompson the soloist, and William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 4 “Autochthonous.”

Both Price and Still were limited in some respects because of the color barrier. Even so, it’s amazing – and inspiring – to learn just how far they were able to make it in an era well before the Civil Rights Movement strove in earnest to level the playing field.

Find out more about them, including the story of the miraculous recovery of Price’s concerto from her semi-collapsed house, as recently as 2009 – and the definition of “autochthonous” – in my article in this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo, out yesterday. I got so busy, I forgot to let everyone know!

https://princetoninfo.com/african-american-composers-shine-in-trenton/

BONUS: Tune in to hear Daniel Spalding chat about the concert with David Osenberg this afternoon at 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

February 21, 2019
July’s Musical Birthdays on WWFM

July must be very sultry indeed. Take a gander at the overwhelming list of musical birthdays I’m now confronted with.

Georg Matthias Monn (1717-1750)
Theobald Boehm (1794-1881)
Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916)
Florence Price (1887-1953)
Paul Robeson (1898-1976)
Efrem Zimbalist (1889-1985)
Antal Doráti (1906-1988)
Armin Jordan (1932-2006)
Aulis Sallinen (1935- )
Jerzy Maksymiuk (1936- )

I’ll be heating bottles and changing diapers from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

April 9, 2018
Black Composers on WPRB

Florence Price’s “Mississippi Suite.” Joseph White’s Violin Concerto in F-sharp minor. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Symphonic Variations on an African Air.” David Baker’s “Three Ethnic Dances” for clarinet and orchestra. Adolphus Hailstork’s “Done Made My Vow.” George Walker’s “Piano Concerto.” Duke Ellington’s “Black, Brown and Beige.”

These are some of the pieces we’ll be listening to this morning, as we explore the diversity of music of the black experience, from 6 to 11 EST, on WPRB 103.3 FM and at wprb.com. We’ll be serving your coffee black, on Classic Ross Amico.

February 23, 2017
Margaret Bonds & Her Influential Teachers

Margaret Bonds was one of the first black composers and performers to gain recognition in the U.S. Born in Chicago on March 3, 1913, she is perhaps best-remembered for her collaborations with Langston Hughes and for her piano work “Troubled Water.”

This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll pay tribute to Bonds and her notable teachers, Florence Price and William Levi Dawson, both of whom were also important figures in the history of African American art music.

Price is considered the first African American woman to have composed symphonies. She wrote three of them (one was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). She also wrote orchestral works, chamber music, instrumental music, and numerous choral and vocal pieces. She and Bonds shared not only a teacher-student relationship, but also became very good friends. Tonight, we’ll hear Price’s “Fantasie Negre.”

In addition to his many, many fine works for chorus, Dawson is notable for having written one of the most successful symphonies by an African-American composer, the so-called “Negro Folk Symphony.” The work was composed in 1934 and given its first performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, under Leopold Stokowski. Dawson revised the piece in 1952, following a trip to West Africa, where he was influenced by the indigenous rhythms he encountered there. Stokowski later recorded the piece, as did Neeme Jarvi with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I have a preference for the latter recording.

In 1933, Bonds appeared as a piano soloist with the Chicago Symphony. She performed Price’s Piano Concerto with the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago the next year. In 1939, she moved to New York, where she continued her studies at the Juilliard School. She also studied privately with Roy Harris.

For all her accomplishments, her collaborations with Langston Hughes, her establishment of a cultural community center in Harlem, and the composition of two ballets and several theatre works, the Bonds discography is woefully thin. She’ll be represented tonight by her cycle of four songs, “Ah! Love But a Day,” and by her most-recorded piano work, “Troubled Water.”

Shortly before her death in Los Angeles in 1972 (at the age of 59), Bonds’ “Credo” for baritone, chorus and orchestra was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the direction of Zubin Mehta. Would that they had recorded it!

I hope you’ll join me for “Educational Bonds” – music by Margaret Bonds and her teachers – this Sunday night at 10:00 EST on WWFM – The Classical Network and at wwfm.org.

February 19, 2017

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