#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 4, 2025

February is Black History Month and a logical time to highlight contributions by people of color to classical music. Those contributions have been significant -- and not just in the past 50 years. 

This month's #ClassicsaDay challenge is to post musical examples of works by composers of color, or classical music recordings made by people of color. There is a lot to choose from. 

Here are my social media posts for the fourth and final week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/24/25 Margaret Bonds - Montgomery Variations

Bonds wrote this work in 1964. It's based on a spiritual, and depicts the major events of the Civil Rights Movement, beginning with the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

 

02/25/25 Clarence Cameron White: Bandana Sketches II & IV

White was a violinist and composer active in the early 20th century. The work features arrangements of four African-American spirituals and work songs.

 

08/26/25 Zenobia Powell Perry: Homage

"Homage" is a movement from "Piano Potpourri," written in 1990. Perry composed it in homage to Black composer William Dawson. "Homage" is often performed as a stand-alone piece.

 

02/27/25 Thomas Kerr: Riding to Town

The song uses the poem "Riding to Town" by Paul Laurence Dunbar. It was written in 1943 and was included in the "Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers."

 

08/28/25 Regina Harris Baiocchi: Communion

This work is a concertino for marimba and string quartet. It was inspired by the mural "Communion of the Saints" in St. Elizabeth Seaton Church, Naperville, IL. It was painted by Lillian Brulc.

 

Next month:

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 3

February is Black History Month and a logical time to highlight contributions by people of color to classical music. Those contributions have been significant -- and not just in the past 50 years. 

This month's #ClassicsaDay challenge is to post musical examples of works by composers of color, or classical music recordings made by people of color. There is a lot to choose from. 

Here are my social media posts for the third week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

2/17/25 Adolphus Hailstork: Symphony No. 1

Hailstork has been a professor of music and the Composer-in-Residence at Norfolk State University, an HBCU. He composed his first symphony in 1988 for the Ocean Grove, NJ Summer Music Festival.

 

2/18/25 Ulysses Kay: Chariots - An Orchestral Rhapsody 1978

Kay's "Chariots" was commissioned by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. It was premiered in 1978 with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The composer conducted the performance.

 

2/19/25 James Lee III: Shades of Unbroken Dreams (Piano Concerto)

Lee's Piano Concerto was premiered in 2023. It was written for the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. It reflects on how much (and how little) progress has been made since then.

 

2/20/25 Shawn Okpebholo: Zoom

Zoom was commissioned by the US Air Force Band which premiered it in 2021. The title refers not to speed, but to the software that connected people during the pandemic.

 

2/21/25 Alvin Singleton: In My Own Skin

this work was premiered in 2011. The work depicts the sometimes uneasy alliance between different creative worlds -- in this case, jazz and classical music.

 

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 2, 2025

 February is Black History Month and a logical time to highlight contributions by people of color to classical music. Those contributions have been significant -- and not just in the past 50 years. 

This month's #ClassicsaDay challenge is to post musical examples of works by composers of color, or classical music recordings made by people of color. There is a lot to choose from. 

Here are my social media posts for the second week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/10/25 Roque Cordero: Sinfonia No. 2

Panamanian composer Cordero did much to develop classical music in his country. He was director of the Panama Institute of Music, conductor of the country's National Symphony, and assistant director of the Latin American Music Center.

02/11/25 Arthur Cunningham: Harlem Suite

Cunningham was a graduate of Fisk and Julliard. He often mixed pop genres with classical forms and is credited with creating the first rock opera in 1963.

 

02/12/25 Jessie Montgomery: Starburst

Montgomery was composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2016. Her 2023 album "Contemporary American Composers" won a Grammy in 2023.

 

02/13/25 Philippa Schuyler: Voodoo Festival

Schuyler was a virtuoso pianist and composer. She concertized at the 1939 World's Fair (age 8) and was the youngest member of the National Association for American Composers and Conductors.

 

02/14/25 Irene Britton Smith: Sinfonietta

Smith was of both Black and Native American descent. She was a pioneer of music education and a concert violinist. In 1958, she was able to study with Nadia Boulanger in France.

 

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 1 2025

 February is Black History Month, and a logical time to highlight contributions by people of color to classical music. Those contributions have been significant -- and not just in the past 50 years. 

This month's #ClassicsaDay challenge is to post musical examples of works by composers of color, or classical music recordings made by people of color. There is a lot to choose from. 

Here are my social media posts for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/03/25 Michael Abels: Global Warming

When Abels wrote this work in 1999, the title referred to the thawing of the Cold War. It's since taken on a new meaning.

 

02/04/25 Florence Price: Symphony No. 3

The Works Progress Administration commissioned this work in 1938. It was premiered in 1940 by the Michigan WPA Symphony Orchestra.  

02/05/25 Eleanor Alberga: Symphony No. 1 "Strata"

British composer Alberga composed this work in 2022. It was inspired by geology. Each movement depicts a different layer of the earth's crust.

 

02/06/25 Regina Harris Baiocchi: Hold Out for Joy

Baiocchi is an author, poet, and composer. Her work "Hold Out for Joy" was written in 1986 and is based on Psalm 30.

 

02/07/25 Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Symphony No. 2 in D major

Bologne was a mixed-race composer, born of a French noble and Jamaican enslaved woman. He would become one of France's greatest violinists of the late 1790s, as well as its finest swordsman.

 

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 4 2024

Classical music originated in Western Europe, but it's not exclusive to dead, white European males. The challenge for February is to post videos of classical music either written or performed by musicians of color. 

There's a lot to choose from. I decided to focus on composers, but there are plenty of conductors and performers going back farther than you might think. Here are my posts for the fourht and final week of #BlackHistoryMonth 

02/26/24 Shawn Okpebholo: There is Always Light

This trio for clarinet, bassoon, and marimba was composed in 2021. The title comes from the spiritual "Hold On."

 

02/27/24 Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson: Worship A Concert Overture for Orchestra

Perkinson wrote classical music and founded the Symphony of the New World. He also composed for Max Roach, wrote film scores, and did arrangements for Marvin Gaye.

 

02/28/24 Zenobia Powell Perry: Echoes from the Journey

Perry was a composer and civil rights activist. Many of her compositions reference the Black Experience. In this work, she uses spirituals to illustrate that experience from Reconstruction through the 1960s.

 

02/29/24 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade in A minor for Orchestra, Op. 33

This work was composed the same year his cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was premiered, 1898. It was one of 92 works he published before his death at age 37.

 

Next Month:

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 3, 2024

Classical music originated in Western Europe, but it's not exclusive to dead, white European males. The challenge for February is to post videos of classical music either written or performed by musicians of color. 

There's a lot to choose from. I decided to focus on composers, but there are plenty of conductors and performers going back farther than you might think. Here are my posts for the third week of #BlackHistoryMonth 

02/19/24 Julia Perry: Prelude for Piano

Perry won two Guggenheim Fellowships and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She was on the faculty of Florida A&M University, a historically black land-grant university.

 

02/20/24 James Lee III: Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Orchestra

Lee studied with William Bolcom and Bright Sheng. He's currently on the faculty of Morgan State University. His Snfonia Concertante was written in 2017.

 

02/21/24 Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Sonata for Two Violins

Bologne was a virtuoso violinist as well as a composer. In the 1790s he was one of the most famous -- and popular -- musicians in Paris. 

02/22/24 Edmond Dédé: Two pieces for Piano

Dédé was a child prodigy. But as a free-born Creole in the antebellum South, opportunities were non-existent. He moved to France and became an important composer and opera conductor.

 

02/23/24 William Grant Still: Wood Notes

Still was a ground-breaking artist. He was the first Black to: conduct a major orchestra; have an opera performed on national TV; have a symphony played by a major orchestra; and have an opera performed by a major opera company.

 

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 2 2024

Classical music originated in Western Europe, but it's not exclusive to dead, white European males. The challenge for February is to post videos of classical music either written or performed by musicians of color. 

There's a lot to choose from. I decided to focus on composers, but there are plenty of conductors and performers going back farther than you might think. 

Here are my posts for the second week of #BlackHistoryMonth

02/12/24 William L. Dawson: Soon Ah Will Be Done

Dawson arranged several African-American spirituals that quickly entered the choral repertoire. "Soon Ah Will Be Done" was written in 1934, when he was at Tuskegee Institute.

 

02/13/24 R. Nathaneil Dett: Ave Maria

Dett was born in Canada but spent most of his life in America. He was the first Black composer to join ASCAP. He's one of many American composers to study with Nadia Boulanger.

 

02/14/24 Jose White Lafitte: La Bella Cubana

Lafitte was a Cuban-French violin virtuoso active in the late 19th Century. Most of Lafitte's works were written for the violin.

 

02/15/24 Jessie Montgomery: Strum

Montgomery is a violinist as well as a composer. She's served as composer-in-residence for the Chicago Symphony and is on the board of Chamber Music America.

 

02/16/24 Undine Smith Moore: We Shall Walk Through the Valley

Moore is known as the "Dean of Black Women Composers." Much of her work was inspired by African-American spirituals and folk music.

 

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 1 2024

Classical music originated in Western Europe, but it's not exclusive to dead, white European males. The challenge for February is to post videos of classical music either written or performed by musicians of color. 

There's a lot to choose from. I decided to focus on composers, but there are plenty of conductors and performers going back farther than you might think. 

Here are my posts for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth

02/04/24 Julia Perry: A Short Piece for Orchestra

Perry already had a strong reputation in Europe when she went to study with Nadia Boulanger. This 1952 work was written during that time.

 

02/05/24 Undine Smith Moore: Afro-American Suite for flute, cello, and piano

Moore based this suite on five traditional spirituals. It was premiered in 1969.

 

02/06/24 Rosamond Johnson: Lift Every Voice and Sing National Negro Hymn

James Weldon Johnson wrote the hymn "Lift Every Voice" in 1900. His brother Rosamond set it to music. It's since become the unofficial Black National Anthem.

 

02/07/24 Julius Eastman: Stay On It

Eastman used advanced aleatoric techniques with this work. It can be played by any combination of instruments. Musical cells can be repeated ad-lib, and players can jointly determine when to move from one section to the next.

 

02/08/24 Harry T. Burleigh: The Lord's Prayer

Burleigh studied with Antonin Dvorak and was renowned as a singer as well as a composer. Most of his works were for solo voice or choir.

 

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 4

For the month of February, the Classics a Day team once again chose Black History Month as the theme. Composers of color have made significant contributions to classical music throughout history.

And there's a lot of great music still awaiting discovery. Here are my posts for #ClassicaDay for the fourth and final week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/20/23 José Maurício Nunes Garcia: Requiem

Brazilian composer Garcia was the son of mulattos. He joined the priesthood and was appointed master of the Royal Chapel by King John VI of Portugal. His music combines the classicism of Mozart with Brazilian music.

02/21/23 Hall Johnson: Oh, Glory

Johnson was originally trained as a classical violinist and composer. He became interested in spirituals and formed the Hall Johnson Choir. Johnson and the choir were featured in at least four films.

02/22/23 Ulysses Simpson Kay: Bassoon Sonata

Kay was the nephew of King Oliver. He studied with Howard Hanson, and later with Pual Hindemith. His bassoon sonata was written while working with Hindemieht at the Berkshire Music Center.

02/23/22 Arthur Cunningham: This by dying

Cunningham wrote for many genres, including military bands, TV shows, and educational works. He's credited with anticipating the rock opera genre.

02/24/22 Howard Swanson: Concerto for Orchestra

Swanson studied with Nadia Boulanger. This work was commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra, and premiered by them in 1957.

Next Month:

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 3

For the month of February, the Classics a Day team once again chose Black History Month as the theme. Composers of color have made significant contributions to classical music throughout history.

And there's a lot of great music still awaiting discovery. Here are my posts for #ClassicaDay for the third week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/13/23 Eleanor Alberga: Nightscape

Alberga was born in Jamaica. She arrived in the UK to study at the Royal Academy of Music in 1970, and lives there still. She became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to music.

02/14/23 Kenneth Amis: Spring Overture

Amis was born in Bermuda. He is a tuba player and a member of the Empire Brass. He serves on the Boston Conservatory, MIT, and the Longly School of Music faculties.

02/15/23 Gussie Lord Davis: The Fatal Wedding

Davis was the first successful Black songwriter on Tin Pan Alley, publishing over 300 songs. In 1895 he placed second in a nationwide contest for best song in America. "Fatal Wedding" was his breakout hit in 1893.



v

02/16/23 Carman Moore: Folk Energy

Moore studied with Stephen Wolpe and taught at Yale. His work blends classical traditions with other musical genres, such as jazz.

02/17/23 Undine Smith Moore: Before I'd Be a Slave

Called the Dean of Black Women Composers, Moore spent a lifetime educating young musicians. She supervised music in the Goldsboro, NC public school system before joining the faculty at Virginia State University.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 2 2023

For the month of February, the Classics a Day team once again chose Black History Month as the theme. Composers of color have made significant contributions to classical music throughout history.

And there's a lot of great music still awaiting discovery. Here are my posts for #ClassicaDay for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/06/23 Julius Eastman: Joy Boy

Eastman independently developed his own form of minimalism in the early 1970s. Joy Boy was composed in 1974 for four treble instruments.

02/07/23 William L. Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony

Dawson completed his symphony in 1934 (he would revise it many times thereafter). It was prmiered at CArnegie Hall with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. So why isn't this a part of the orchestral repertoire?

02/08/23 Roque Cordero: Violin Concerto

Panamanian composer Roque Cordero studied with Ernst Krenek. He was the founding director of the National Symphony of Panama. His catalog includes four symphonies, as well as concertos for piano, violin and viola.

02/09/23 Akin Euba: The Wanderer

Nigerian composer Euba was also an ethnomusicolgist. His music blends Western techniques (such as 12-tone composition) with African, and especially Yoruba musical traditions.

02/10/23 José Maurício Nunes Garcia: Requiem

Nunes Garcia was a contemporary of Mozart and Beethoven. He's considered one of Brazil's most important composers. And one of the most influential.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 1, 2023

For the month of February, the Classics a Day team once again chose Black History Month as the theme. Composers of color have made significant contributions to classical music throughout history.

And there's a lot of great music still awaiting discovery. Here are my posts for #ClassicaDay for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth.

02/01/23 H. Leslie Adams: The Return from Town

Adams has taken an unusual career path. Unlike many contemporary composers, he doesn't hold a faculty position at a university. Rather, he is a full-time composer, working from his studio in Cleveland, Ohio.

02/02/23 David Baker: Fantasy on Themes from "Masque of the Red Death" Ballet

Baker was primarily a jazz musician, composer, and academician. And he contributed many compositions to the Third Stream, a movement combining classical and jazz, revitalizing both genres.

02/03/23 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80

Coleridge-Taylor composed this 1912 work for American violinist Maud Powell. The parts, shipped from the UK, were lost and had to be rewritten. While lost at sea, they were not, as legend has it, on the Titanic but on a different vessel.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth 2022 Week 4

February is Black History Month, and a great opportunity to explore the music of black composers. That's what the Classics a Day team felt, anyway. 

As always, I tried to find works and composers that I hadn't shared before during #BlackHistoryMonth. Here are my posts for the fourth week.

02/21/22 David Baker - Fantasy on Themes from Masque of the Red Death Ballet

Baker started his career in jazz and eventually moved incto classical music. He's often cited as an example of Third Stream Jazz. His Fantasy was composed in 1998.

02/21/22 Olly Wilson - Hold On: Symphony No. 3

Wilson based his 1998 symphony on the spiritual "Hold On." It was inspired by a talk he gave to elementary school students about African American music and spiritual traditions.

02/22/22 Anthony R. Green - On Top of a Frosted Hill

Green originally composed this work for cello and piano in 2011. The version for cello and harp was created in 2014, and the viola and piano version in 2016.

02/23/22 Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges - String Quartet No. 5

Bologne published three sets of string quartets. Each set had six quartets. This quartet comes from the Op. 1 set, published in 1770.

02/24/22 Jeffrey Mumford - a veil of liquid diamonds

Mumford studied with Elliot Carter. According to the composer, many of his works are inspired by cloud imagery.

02/25/22 Rosephanye Powell - The Word was God

Dr. Powell is one of the premiere choral composers working in America today. She's also considered one of the leading authorities on the music of William Grant Still and African-American spirituals.

Next Month:

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth 2022 Week 3

February is Black History Month, and a great opportunity to explore the music of black composers. That's what the Classics a Day team felt, anyway. 

As always, I tried to find works and composers that I hadn't shared before during #BlackHistoryMonth. Here are my posts for the second week.

02/14/22 Harry T. Burleigh - From the Southland

This piano suite was published in 1910. Burleigh dedicated it to his friend, the British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

02/15/22 R. Nathaniel Dett - Magnolia Suite

This piano suite was published in 1912. Dett's goal was to synthesize African-American music with classical forms in the same way Dvorak did with Czech folk music.

02/16/22 William Dawson - Negro Folk Symphony

Dawson completed this work in 1932, and it was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra two years later. Dawson revised the symphony in 1952 after visiting Africa.

02/17/22 William Grant Still - Symphony No. 2 in G minor, "Song of a New Race"

Still wrote this about his 1937 work: "The Symphony in G minor describes the black people of the current America, a totally new man, as a result of the mixture of white, Indian and black bloods".

02/18/22 Clarence Cameron White - Lament

White recorded his composition in 1920. It was recorded for Broome Special Phonograph Records, the first black-owned label in the States.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth 2022 Week 2

February is Black History Month, and a great opportunity to explore the music of black composers. That's what the Classics a Day team felt, anyway. 

As always, I tried to find works and composers that I hadn't shared before during #BlackHistoryMonth. Here are my posts for the second week.

02//7/22 Margaret Bonds - Troubled Water

This is one of Bond's most-performed works. She wrote the arrangement of this spiritual in 1967.

02/8/22 Julius Eastman - Stay On It

Eastman wrote in a style he called organic music. "Stay On It" (1973) is credited with being one of the first compositions to integrate pop tonalities and improvisation.

2/9/22 Julia Perry - Stabat Mater as we grieve together

Perry wrote this work in 1951. It established her reputation as a classical composer.

2/10/22 Undine Smith Moore - Before I'd Be a Slave

Moore composed this work in 1952 for the Virginia State College Modern Dance Group. She wrote, "It follows a program which I hope is evident in the music without verbal explanation."

Regina Harris Baiocchi - Miles per Hour (for solo trumpet)

The composer wrote that MPH has a message: "Listen, I have something to say about the lineage of trumpet players and their impact on literature."

#Classicsaday #BlackHistoryMonth 2022 Week 1

February is Black History Month, and a great opportunity to explore the music of black composers. That's what the Classics a Day team felt, anyway. 

As always, I tried to find works and composers that I hadn't shared before during #BlackHistoryMonth. Here are my posts for the first week.

02/01/22 Shawn Okpebholo - Two Black Churches

This song cycle is about two black churches, attacked by white supremasists. The first is the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama (1963), and Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina (2015). Okpebhol's work focuses on a community that chose faith and hope over hate and fear.

02/02/22 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Overture to Hiawatha

"Hiawatha" was the work that made Coleridge-Taylor's reputation as a composer. This trilogy of cantata was based on Longfellow's poem.

02/03/22 James Lee III - Chuphshah! Harriet's Drive to Canaan

This work celebrates the accompilishments of Harriet Tubman. After escaping slavery, she repeatedly returned to the South to free others again and again. Lee uses spirituals of the day plus battle songs from both the North and South to tell Tubman's story.

02/04/22 Florence Price - Symphony No. 1 in E minor

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered this work in 1932. It was the first symphony by a Black female composer to be performed by an American orchestra. It fell into obsurity shortly after the premiere, until rediscoverd in the 2010s.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 3

The Classics a Day team has celebrated Black composers before. This time around, I tried to avoid duplication with previous posts. It was easy to do. There is a lot of classical music by persons of color, both in the past as well as the present. A lot.

Here are my posts for the third week of #BlackHistoryMonth for #ClassicsaDay.

02/15/21 Julius Eastman - Feminine

Eastman performed with Peter Maxwell Davies, Meredith Monk, and Pierre Boulez. As a composer, he used minimalism to develop his music organically.

02/16/21 Helen Hagan - Concerto in C minor

Hagen was a pianist and composer, who studied at Yale. She premiered this concerto in 1912. Horatio Parker conducted. She was the first Black woman to graduate from Yale. Her concerto has yet to be recorded with an orchestra.

02/17/21 Adolphus Hailstork - Piano Concerto

Hailstork's 1992 concerto was premiered in Norfolk with JoAnn Falletta conducting the Virginia Symphony (which co-commissioned the work). Leon Bates was the soloist.

 

02/18/21 Undine Smith Moore - We Shall Walk in Peace

Moore became known as "The Dean of Black Women Composers." She wrote over 100 works, many for chorus. This is an arrangement of a traditional spiritual Moore published in 1977.

02/19/21 Philippa Schuyler - Five Little Pieces

Schuyler was a child prodigy, playing and composing at age 5. In her early 30s, she gave up the piano, weary of continually fighting prejudice in the classical music world.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 2

The Classics a Day team has celebrated Black composers before. This time around, I tried to avoid duplication with previous posts. It was easy to do. There is a lot of classical music by persons of color, both in the past as well as the present. A lot.

Here are my posts for the second week of #BlackHistoryMonth for #ClassicsaDay.

02/08/21 Florence Price - Ethiopia's Shadow in America (1932)

According to Price, the work's three movements portray the Negro arriving in America as a slave, his resignation and faith, and finally his adaptation, fusing his native and acquired cultures.

02/09/21 Irene Britton Smith - Sonata for Violin and Piano

Smith pioneered music education methods for young children. She also studied composition with Leo Sowerby and Nadia Boulanger. This sonata is one of her grad school compositions.

02/10/21 Josh Coyne - Soon

Most of Coyne's works are inspired by the African-American experience. "Soon" is based on the spiritual "Soon Ah Will Be Done."

02/11/21 Kenneth Amis

Jamaican-born Amis is a tuba player and an important composer for brass. He's held the International Brass Chair at the Royal Academy of Music.

02/12/21 Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson - Movement for String Trio

Perkinson was a true eclectic. In addition to his classical works, he also played piano for Max Roach, arranged for Marvin Gaye, and wrote film and TV scores.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 1

The Classics a Day team has celebrated Balck composers before. This time around, I tried to avoid duplication with previous posts. It was easy to do. There is a lot of classical music by persons of color, both in the past as well as the present. A lot. 

Here's what I found for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth for #ClassicsaDay.

02/01/21 Harry T. Burleigh - Go Down Moses

This recording was made in 1919 by George W. Brooome Company -- the first Black record label. Burleigh is credited with introducing Black music to Antonin Dvorak.

02/02/21 Shawn Okpebholo - Kutimbua Kivumbi

Okpebholo wrote this work after a sabbatical in Kenya. The title means Stomp the Dust in Swahili.

02/03/21 Leslie Adams - Prayer

Adams is best known for his vocal compositions. "Prayer" is part of his 1961 song cycle "Nightsongs." The text is by Langston Hughes.

02/04/21 Thomas Kerr - Anguished American Easter

Kerr wrote over 100 works and was on the faculty of Howard University. Anguished American Easter was a reaction to MLK's assassination. Kerr originally improvised it during a Good Friday service in 1968.

02/05/21 Dorothy Rudd Moore - Dirge and Deliverance

Moore studied with both Thomas Kerr at Howard U. and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. She later co-founded the Society of Black Composers.