New York Youth Symphony Excel with Composers of Color

This release features music by three female African-American composers. Florence Price was active in the 1930s and is just now coming into her own. Valerie Coleman and Jessie Montgomery are contemporary composers, building on Price's legacy.

The New York Youth Symphony gives these works some fine performances. The players may be young, but their technique is solid. As is their ensemble sound. Entrances are precise, and the orchestra has a supple, expressive sound. 

Price is represented by two works. Her single-movement Piano Concerto in D minor was premiered in 1934 with Price as soloist. Michele Cann's performance gives the concerto a fiery urgency.

Also included is "Ethiopia in America," written in 1932. Price originally conceived this as a piano suite, and orchestrated it later. The work was considered lost until recovered in 2009. Price portrays the Black Experience in America, and does so effectively. You may hear hints of Dvorak in this work, but only just. Price is drawing on her own folk music traditions here.

Valerie Coleman's "Umoja" is another composition that exists in different versions. The title means unity in Swahili. This is a vibrant, rhythmic work that gives glimpses of the African music that inspired it. 

"Soul Force" by Jessi Montgomery draws on African traditions of a different kind. Here the raw material is the various genres of music created by African-Americans. There's big band, hip-hop, jazz, and rhythm and blues. It all works, and it works really well. 

This is a fine album that I'll be revisiting many times. For the newer works, as well as the old ones. 

Ethiopia's Shadow in America
New York Youth Symphony
Florence Price; Valerie Coleman; Jessie Montgomery
Michelle Cann, piano
Michael Repper, conductor
Avie