This Little Light of Mine: The inimitable Mr. Cummings speaks to the League’s annual meeting about how the arts has the power to change lives. “As I march toward the twilight of my life, there’s nothing more important to me than seeing children have opportunities. – YouTube
Prolific composer Alvin Singleton talks upcoming work, ‘Black culture’ as ‘American culture’
“Singleton demurs when described as a composer of classical music. ‘I know that I write music. I’m a composer. So, categorization always gets us in trouble because it defines us very narrowly.'” – New York Amsterdam News
Here’s How Anthony McGill Became The First African-American Principal Of The New York Philharmonic
The clarinetist who played at Barack Obama’s inauguration talks about playing with passion, staying humble, setting goals, giving your all on every occasion, and overcoming negativity. (video) – Forbes
The Play That Made Me Understand Why ‘Porgy And Bess’ Can Be Stifling
Soraya Nadia McDonald: “Does it still make sense to present an opera written by [four whites] as the opera about black American life? Is it a collection of insulting stereotypes set against gorgeous orchestrations, or something more? Attending a performance of Porgy and Bess helped clarify some of those questions for me. But it was another show altogether that helped me reframe how to think about them: Keith Hamilton Cobb’s American Moor.” – The Undefeated
‘I Wanted To Form An Orchestra Of People Like Me’: An Ensemble For Musicians With Mental Illness
“The [Me2/Orchestra’s] beginnings were humble — seven people showed up to the first rehearsal in Burlington, Vt., in 2011. Yet it has grown — almost entirely by word of mouth, [Ronald] Braunstein said proudly — to an extent that the Boston-based orchestra numbers some 60 people. In addition to the Boston and Burlington orchestras, affiliated ensembles also exist in Manchester, N.H., and Portland, Ore. ‘That’s what a need there is for people who live with mental illness and play instruments,’ Braunstein said.” – The Boston Globe
The Met Opera’s New “Porgy”: Restoring An American Masterpiece
Joseph Horowitz: “The modernist view of Gershwin the gifted dilettante is no longer heard. Concomitantly, American music historians, for whom Gershwin once barely existed, have flocked to Porgy and Rhapsody in Blue. A burgeoning interest in the interwar fate of black classical music will surely promote new understandings of Gershwin as a necessary interloper between “classical” and “popular” genres severed by 20th-century aesthetic currents.” – American Scholar
2019 Colour of Music Festival “Petit” Nashville Début Nov. 6-9
“The Colour of Music Festival announces the Nashville, TN début of Colour of Music Festival ‘Petit’ November 6-9, 2019 at multiple noted venues throughout downtown Nashville, a five-day festival featuring black classical artists and scholars from France, Britain, Colombia, the Caribbean, and the United States performing organ, piano, vocal, chamber and orchestral works showcasing the impact and historical significance of black classical composers and performers on American and world culture.” – The Tennessee Tribune
The New Music Career: Mosaics?
“The 21st-century arts economy continues to evolve, and mosaic careers are what will enable us to keep pace with it. These are careers made up of many different parts, in different sizes. Some pieces are brighter and shinier than others; some are bigger and some are smaller. It is the combination of these parts that is essential.” – 21CM
Vogue Dancers Subvert a Baroque Spectacle at the Paris Opera
“Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes was designed to show the triumph of Enlightenment order over the exotic ‘other.’ Can hip-hop dance make it feel less toxic?” – The New York Times
Changing the color of opera is the goal of Minnesota Opera’s new leader
“A singer herself, Minnesota Opera’s Priti Gandhi sees diversity as a way to ‘open people’s imaginations’ — not to mention a matter of survival.” – The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Why don’t we hear more music by women? The Imani Winds quintet is trying to change that.
“For more than two decades, Imani Winds, founded by the composer and flutist Valerie Coleman, has been unfolding different perspectives in its concerts, juxtaposing Bach with John Coltrane, playing Stravinsky and Jason Moran, riding a lonely path as one of the few ensembles made up of musicians of color in a very white field. But in the classical music world, being a woman is even harder than being black — so, at least, thought Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, two major 20th-century composers who happened to be both.” – The Washington Post
Is There A Good Way To Contextualize ‘Turandot’ For 2019?
The Canadian Opera Company is trying to figure that out, but it’s complex. The pseudo-Asian characters Ping, Pang, and Pong have been renamed in Toronto, but tenor Julius Ahn, who sings Pang (now named Bob) has some questions. “”Why can’t we be funny? Why can’t we be silly? Why can’t we be complex? Why can’t we be lighthearted? Why can’t we be mean? Can’t Asians be crass onstage? For me, art itself needs to be inclusive.” – CBC
Roomful Of Teeth As Living Organism
With a dedication to diverse input, RoT seems less a performing ensemble and more a living organism. The group has studied yodeling, Tuvan throat singing, Korean p’ansori, Persian classical singing, Inuit throat singing, and, closer to home, belting and death metal. Collaborators include an illustrious list of contemporary composers. – San Francisco Classical Voice
Europe’s First Orchestra For Young People With Disabilities Is Making Its Debut
The Open Youth Orchestra of Ireland “is preparing for its inaugural performance, which will showcase adaptive instruments, virtual reality music and revolutionary ‘conductology’. (includes video) – Irish Independent
All-Black orchestra showcases tunes that speak to the culture
“Jason Ikeem Rodgers, founder and music director for Atlanta’s Orchestra Noir, has captivated audiences with his fusion of classical music and contemporary genres like hip-hop and R&B. … ‘For the past 20 to 30 years, the symphony has been dying,’ he said. ‘I think hip-hop and R&B within the symphony is a great way to revive an old art.'” – Qcitymetro (Charlotte)
Conductor starts orchestra on Chicago’s South Side for young musicians of color
“A conductor has started a youth orchestra on Chicago’s South Side to serve many young musicians of color who had to commute long distances to take part in music programs downtown or in the city’s northern suburbs. Charles Dickerson formed the South Side Chicago Youth Orchestra in July.” – WLS (Chicago)
Cleveland Orchestra Extends With Franz Welser-Möst Through 2027, Returns To Recording, Launches Diversity Initiative
By the time Welser-Möst’s extension runs out in 2027, he will have been the orchestra’s music director for 25 years, one year longer than George Szell. Early in 2020, the orchestra will begin issuing a series of recordings (CD and digital) of concert performances, and the new fellowship program, called Nurturing Diverse Talent, aims to give young Black and Latinx musicians “people a chance to rise to the level of the Cleveland Orchestra.” – The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
How Problematic Is ‘Porgy And Bess’ In 2019?
Is it a sensitive portrait of a segregated Black community? Or is it a parade of stereotypes performed in embarrassing dialect? Is it a triumph of the American melting pot, with the sons of Russian Jews teaming with white Southern WASPs to tell an African-American story? Or is it a very model of cultural appropriation? Has it given Black singers valuable and (too) rare opportunities? Or has it caused them to be pigeonholed? Or is the answer to all these questions yes? – The New York Times
‘No path is easy’: Black opera singers detail struggles
“More than 60 years after Marian Anderson broke the color barrier at the Metropolitan Opera, black singers still face unique obstacles in building their careers within the industry. … Still, [Porgy and Bess, with which the Met is opening this season], provides a rare opportunity for black artists because the Gershwin estate requires that they be cast in all the singing roles. The AP sat down with five of [Porgy‘s cast members] during rehearsals to talk about challenges they’ve faced.” – Yahoo! (AP)
Singing City Choir has made social justice core to its identity since its founding
Says artistic and music director Jeffrey Brillhart, “No single concert is going to change the world. But I think if audiences can be sensitized to the humanity rather than to labels, if they can be sensitized to our commonalities, then people will walk out of a concert and may change their opinion about who to vote for, or it may cause people to do more more research. I have to believe that is happening.” (5th and 9th paragraphs; see also listings lower on page for Singing City Choir, Two Cellists in a Parking Lot, and Black Violin) – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Historian Presenting Lecture On Controversial Musician Gets Shut Down And Banned
“Recently I was asked to present a lecture on composer Julius Eastman and his work at the OBEY Convention, a music and sound festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But rather than a fruitful discussion of Eastman’s probing, piercing minimalist music and legacy as an overlooked composer only now getting his due, the situation turned into a referendum on complicated questions: who gets to hold forth on artists of different identities, and on whose terms?” – ARTnews
Dvořák Was Sure ‘Negro Melodies’ Would Be The Foundation Of American Classical Music. Why Did It Remain So White?
There was a point at which a number of African-American composers were writing serious, important work, writes Joseph Horowitz. “Racial prejudice, personal and institutional, obviously inhibited the potential success of a Dett, Dawson, Still, or Price. But a subtler prejudice was aesthetic.” – The American Scholar
African-American Is New Chief Conductor Of BBC National Orchestra Of Wales
Ryan Bancroft, a 29-year-old native of Long Beach who studied at CalArts, discovered classical music through a one-minute clip of Beethoven pre-loaded on his family’s first computer, and he cites as a chief influence Ghanaian dancing. – The Telegraph (UK)
Conductor Anthony Parnther Knows The Effect Seeing A Black Person On The Podium Can Have
“I’ve seen it many times when I’m conducting, and I see young children of various colors sitting in the front three or four rows,” says the new music director of the San Bernardino Symphony in California and the conductor of the historically Black orchestra Southeast Symphony in Los Angeles. “You can just tell, it’s like: ‘Wow, that’s not what I was expecting to see come around the corner.'” – Los Angeles Times
The Lakota Music Project finds common ground through collaboration
“The Lakota Music Project [is] a collaborative program developed with the [South Dakota Symphony Orchestra] and musicians of the tribe. The goal is to create cultural cooperation and break down barriers, enabling audiences to learn more about traditional art — of the Lakota, and of a symphony orchestra.” – The Washington Post