#ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth Week 4

Since 1979, June has been African-American Music Appreciation Month. The Classics a Day team decided to adopt it for the June 2019 theme as well. Popular music genres will no doubt be well-represented by others. We'll be focusing on the composers, conductors, and performing artists of color who have contributed to classical music.

For my part, my feed features African-American classical composers. Here are my posts for the fourth and final week of #ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth

6/24/19 Rosephanye Powell (1962-) To Sit and Dream

Powell is primarily known as a choral composer. She's also considered an authority on the music of William Grant Still, and African-American spirituals.

6/25/19 Hale Smith (1925-2009) - Contours for Orchestra

Smith studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He won the first BMI Student Composer Award in 1952 and went on to have a successful career as a composer, pianist, arranger, and academician.

6/26/19 Jeffrey Mumford (1955 - ) - "through a stillness..."

Mumford studied with composition with Elliot Carter. Although not a strict serialist, Mumford writes densely complex music that eschews tonality.

6/27/19 George Walker (1922-2018) Lyric for Strings

Walker was the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for composition. Lyric for Strings is dedicated to Walker's grandmother, who died shortly before the work was finished. Lyric remains his most popular work.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth Week 3

Since 1979, June has been African-American Music Appreciation Month. The Classics a Day team decided to adopt it for the June 2019 theme as well. Popular music genres will no doubt be well-represented by others. We'll be focusing on the composers, conductors, and performing artists of color who have contributed to classical music. 

For my part, my feed features African-American classical composers. Here are my posts for Week 3 of #ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth

6/17/19 Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004) - Homage (to William Levi Dawson)

Perry studied with Darius Milhaud and wrote "clear, classic melodies." She was well-respected as a composer, teacher, and civil rights activist.

6/18/19 Joshua Coyne (1993 - ) - Daydream

Coyne is an accomplished violinist and studied with Richard Daneilpour. He's composed both concert music and movie soundtracks. "Daydream" won gold at the NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics.

6/19/19 Philippa Schuyler (1931-1967) - Four Little Pieces

Schuyler was a child prodigy. Her first compositions were written at age five. Although she had a successful career as a pianist, she turned to journalism. She was a Vietnam war correspondent when she was killed in action.

6/20/19 Florence Price (1887-1953) - Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major

Price was the first African-American woman to have her music played by a major orchestra. Her orchestral catalog includes 4 symphonies, 4 concertos, and several shorter works.

6/21/19 Regina Harris Baiocchi (1956 - ) - Azuretta

Although she showed musical talent at an early age, Baiocchi has worked both in and outside the field. Most of her instrumental compositions are for solo instruments or chamber ensembles.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth Week 2

Since 1979, June has been African-American Music Appreciation Month. The Classics a Day team decided to adopt it for the June 2019 theme as well. Popular music genres will no doubt be well-represented by others. We'll be focusing on the composers, conductors, and performing artists of color who have contributed to classical music. 

For my part, my feed features African-American classical composers. Here are my posts for Week 1 of #ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth

6/10/19 Adolphus Hailstork (1941 - ) - "Sonata da Chiesa" for String Orchestra

Hailstork studied with David Diamond and Nadia Boulanger. His music seamlessly blends European and African-American traditions together. "Sonata da Chiesa" was premiered in 1979.

6/11/19 Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) Fantasy Variations

Kay studied with Paul Hindemith in the 1940s. Some of that influence can be heard in the way Kay develops his variations from the theme.

6/12/19 Dorothy Rudd Moore (1940 - ) - A Little Whimsy

Moore is one of the founders of the Society of Black Composers. Included in her catalog is the 1985 opera, "Frederick Douglass."

6/13/19 Derrick Spiva, Jr. (1982 - ) - American Mirror

In addition to Western classical music, Spiva has also studied Hindustani, Balkan, Persian, and West African music. His own work incorporates all of these musical traditions and more.

6/14/19 Olly Wilson (1937-2018) - Trilogy for Orchestra

In addition to being a composer, Wilson was also a pianist and double bassist. He established TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) at Oberlin.

#ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth Week 1

Since 1979, June has been African-American Music Appreciation Month. The Classics a Day team decided to adopt it for the June 2019 theme as well. Popular music genres will no doubt be well-represented by others. We'll be focusing on the composers, conductors, and performing artists of color who have contributed to classical music. 

For my part, my feed features African-American classical composers. Here are my posts for Week 1 of #ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth*

6/3/19 Michael Abels (1962) Urban Legends

Abels is best known for his movie scores, "Get Out," and "Us." He's also an accomplished classical composer, his first premiered work written at age 13.

6/4/19 Margaret Allison Bonds (1913-1972) Troubled Water

Bonds often collaborated with Langston Hughes and studied composition with Roy Harris. "Troubled Water" is based on a spiritual recast as a piano sonata.

6/5/19 Will Marion Cook (1869-1944) "In Dahomey" Overture

Cook was one of Dvorak's composition students in America. His greatest successes came in theater and dance music. His 1903 musical "In Dahomey" was the first produced with an all-black cast on Broadway.

6/6/19 Leonard De Paur (1914-1998) Au Place Congo: Fomme La Dit, Mo Malhéuré

De Paur was a prolific composer and arranger of choral music. The De Paur Chorus did a goodwill tour of Africa in the 1960s. De Paur's arrangement of the Congo song "Fomme La Dit" premiered in 1967.

6/7/19 Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869-1954) Voodoo

Known as "the black Wagner," Freeman wrote and produced operas. His opera companies performed works by Freeman and other black composers. His opera "Voodoo" premiered in 1928.




*President Jimmy Carter initiated Black Music Month in 1979. President Barack Obama changed its name in 2009. We use the older hashtag #BlackMusicMonth simply because it's shorter, and frees up more characters for the body of the tweet.