The Sphinx Organization focuses on Black and Latino string players' involvement in the classical arts. Read a review of the Sphinx Laureates concert in the NY Times. 

 Philly bound? Check out a concert while you're there! http://astro.temple.edu/~rgreene/musicphilly

Click here for the latest National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM) newsletter Reverberations.

Now just what is the viola da gamba?? The viol (often referred to by its Italian name viola da gamba) is a bowed, fretted stringed musical instrument played between the legs (da gamba) like a cello. It developed in the 15^th century and was used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The viol comes in many different sizes and therefore many different "voices" from high treble to contrabass. The most played are the treble, tenor and bass viols, which were usually played in small ensembles. If you look closely at this picture of Ms. Neely, you might see that this instrument has six strings. It's usually played with a bow that is similar to a violin or cello.

As "the popularity of violin grew throughout the 17th century, the viol could no longer compete. The violin, with a larger sound and the capabilities of being heard in the concert halls, became the premiere instrument of choice. New repertoire, namely the solo concerto, laid the groundwork for the birth of the virtuoso violin soloist." This fact posits Ms. Neely in a rare time and place historically and contemporarily in the United States.

See Ms. Neely perform live on Sunday, October 7 at 5 pm with Holy Trinity Bach Vespers Period Instrument Orchestra, the Choir and members of the Samuel Felsted Project, Boston. Concert features the Oratorio Jonah by Jamaican composer Samuel Felsted (c1743-1802) and is considered the first oratorio composed in America. In addition, there will be a performance of an organ concerto by G. F. Handel, a Symphonia by Vanhall, the Symphony in D by Kammel, and choral works by Arnold and Billings.  Suggested donation $10.00

She will also perform on Sunday, October 28 at 5 pm. Bach Vespers Service will feature:
Bach Cantata 80 - Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott
Dieterich Buxtehude - Erhalt uns, Herr, BuxWV 27
Organ - Prelude and Fugue in D, BWV 532

Click on Patricia Ann Neely to read her full biography. Find out more about the viol at the Viola da Gamba Society of America

The Chicago Sinfonietta and the Chicago Humanities Festival collaborate for the second consecutive year, this year with the Chicago Academy of Sciences' Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, to present a concert in honor of this year's festival theme, Climate of Concern.

At a time when the Earth's climate is a social, political and economic debate, the Sinfonietta speaks up in the language of music.  Under the baton of Founding Musical Director Maestro Paul Freeman, the orchestra will perform the World Premiere of Nigerian composer Fred Onovwerosuoke's Fanfare for Strings, a symphonic work inspired by African rhythms.  This contemporary score will be followed by American composer Michael Abels's Global Warming, a piece celebrating a one-world message by combining folk music from around the world into a unified sound.  This piece was created with several ideas of global warming in mind, including earthly phenomenon and the improvement of international relations. 

Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai will then join the orchestra in James DeMars' Two World Concerto, a symphonic portrayal of the sounds of nature. Written with Nakai's musical talent in mind, this three-movement piece is an ode to the beautiful nature and mystery of our planet. To conclude this "earthly experience," the Sinfonietta will perform the haunting notes of Beethoven's 5^th Symphony as a never-before seen video, curated by the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum and created by Bill Foster, and dedicated to the festival's theme, is screened during the final movement. This unique footage will dramatically illustrate mankind's impact on the planet, as well as some of nature's beautiful wonders, and is certain to leave the audiences pondering the Climate of Concern.

Celebrating nature in musical harmony, this timely concert will take place for one night only on Monday, October 29, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. at the Symphony Center, 220 S Michigan, Chicago. Tickets range from $26-$96 for concerts at Symphony Center.  Special pricing for children, students and groups are available.  For tickets, call 312-236-3681 ext. 2 or visit www.chicagosinfonietta.org.

Each fall, violinist Sanford Allen presides as Music Director of the Clarion Concerts Leaf Peeper Series, a chamber music series in Chatham, NY. Schooled at Julliard School of Music and Mannes College of Music, Allen became the first black musician ever appointed regular membership of the New York Philharmonic. He remained with the orchestra until 1977 under the direction of Leonard Bernstein, George Szell and Pierre Boulez. He has been responsible for numerous commissions and first performances of the music of contemporary composers in general, and black composers in particular. Read his bio.

Continuing along that path, Allen will premiere Carman Moore's commissioned String Trio. The work features movements entitled "BLUE, RED and GREEN." Allen will be joined by violist Jesse Levine and cellist Astrid Schween. This trio will also perform works by Shubert, Haydn and Dohnanyi. Also on the program, Blue/s Forms for solo violin, a work by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004), which was written for Allen. This piece can be found on the Grammy-nominated Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004): A CELEBRATION album issued by Cedille Records. Buy the album.

Sanford Allen will also be joined by harpsichordist Edward Brewer and violinist Dale Stuckenbruck for an evening of Baroque works including Handel and Telemann. Past concerts have featured works from Sir Roland Hannah (a piece for soprano and string quartet, based on poems of Emily Dickinson), Noel DaCosta, Kenny Barron, and Ron Carter, all of whom wrote string trios.

Support the premiere of Carman Moore's work, Oct. 29, 2007 at 7:30pm at St. James Catholic Church, Chatham, NY. Join them on Oct 13 at 7:30pm at Copake United Methodist Church. Call 518-325-3805 for more information and tickets. Admission is $20 for adults and free for students. Tickets are available at the door. 

Can't make it out to Chatham? Catch him, violist Marcus Thompson and cellist Astrid Schween on Friday, November 2, 2007 at Smith College, Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall at 8 pm. Allen will join Sphinx Organization founder and president Aaron P. Dworkin on a discussion panel.

Lecolion Washington, bassoon, received a BM in Music Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, MM in Orchestral Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and Artist Certificate Studies at Southern Methodist University. His principal teachers were Kristin Wolfe Jensen, Frank Morelli, and Wilfred Roberts.

Washington has performed with the Austin Civic Chorus Orchestra, New Texas Festival Orchestra, Mid-Texas Symphony, Garland/Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, and as Principal Bassoonist with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. He also performed with the Riverside Symphony Orchestra and as Principal Basoonist and with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra. He won orchestral auditions with the Houston Grand Opera and Shanghai Broadcasting Orchestra, performed with the Memphis Symphony and Iris Chamber Orchestra, and currently serves as Co-Principal Bassoon of the Missouri Chamber Orchestra. 

As a chamber musician, Professor Washington performed with the Circadia Wind Quintet, New York Chamber Ensemble, and with principal players from orchestras including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and the New York Philharmonic. In 2004, The Orchestral Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music invited him to perform on a chamber music concert of Distinguished Alumni. He has attended the Texas Music Festival, Cape May Music Festival, and the International Festival Institute at Round Top. He won concerto competitions at the Round Top Music Festival and Southern Methodist University, and performed the Weber Andante and Rondo with the Columbia Civic Orchestra.

Professor Washington has given recitals and master classes at The University of North Texas, Baylor University, and The University of Texas at Austin. He served as the Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Missouri-Columbia and bassoonist for the Missouri Wind Quintet, before joining the Memphis Woodwind Quintet and faculty of The Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music in 2004.

See him perform as a member of the Memphis Woodwind Quintet at the University of Memphis on Monday, October 22 at 7:30 at Harris Concert Hall and at Mississippi Valley State University on October 25th (TBA).

He will also perform duets with wife, clarinetist Carina L. N. Washington, founder of the Odyssey Chamber Music Series in Columbia, MO on Friday November 2 at First Baptist Church 8pm. $10 Adults / $7 Seniors / $5 Students. Free Pre-Concert Student Recital at 7:00pm. Program includes Poulenc's 'Sonata' and Rimsky-Korsakov‘s 'Flight of the Bumble Bee.' Also featured, Damase's 'Sonatine' for two pianos, and Castérède's 'Sonatine' for trombone and piano. 

He received a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from MSU, where he was awarded the MSU Distinguished Fellowship. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in conducting from the University Institute of Music (Caracas-Venezuela).

He is Principal Conductor of the Ballet Florida in West Palm Beach and Principal Conductor of Ballet Nacional de Caracas in Venezuela, posts he has held since 1990. He conducts a variety of ballet repertoire including "Romeo and Juliet," "Cinderella," "Firebird," "Swan Lake," "Nutcracker," "Coppelia," "Carmen," and "Giselle," to name a few.

Previous positions include Associate Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Gran Mariscal de Ayachuco, Music Director of the San Augustin Youth Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor to the Caracas Sinfonietta in Venezuela.

See Musique 21 perform on Sunday, October 28 at 3pm at the Sunday Salon Series, Chicago Cultural Center, Preston Bradley Hall, 78 E. Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois 60602 and on Monday, October 29 at 7:30pm at the Michigan State University, Music Auditorium, Music Building, West Circle Drive.

Beethoven. Black?!

Beethoven as a Black composer
by Dominique-René de Lerma, Lawrence University

It is time to put to rest the belief/theory/hope that Beethoven had African ancestry, a factor somewhat implied during his life and intensified by Joel Augustus Rogers.  When Rogers published a picture of Beethoven the portrait was darkened.  On the facing page was a picture of Clarence Cameron White, as I remember, whose picture was very lightened by contrast. 

The work of Rogers should not be belittled but, unable to interest publishers he approached, he was forced to publish his own works, thereby not having these reviewed in advance by an outside jury.

In 2005, Cecil Adams of the Chicago Reader stated that, as far as he was aware, “no one in a position to know has taken the idea of Beethoven’s being Black seriously, but the story survives. Too bad.”

The Scottish Music Centre is a one-stop shop for information for anyone interested in music and is home to an enormous archive of nearly 30,000 items, ranging from copies of 18th Century song-sheets and Scottish contemporary classical scores to the latest CD releases from traditional, rock, jazz and indie bands. They have announced a composition contest entitled: V SYMPHONY COMPOSITION CONTEST FOR BANDS "CITY OF TORREVIEJA."

The municipal cultural institute, ‘Joaquin Chapaprieta,' has organized the fifth annual ‘SYMPHONY COMPOSITION CONTEST - CITY OF TORREVIEJA,' which will take place under some fairly strict rules such as "the composition should have a duration of more than fifteen minutes and less than twenty minutes" and "works should be submitted in quintuplet on paper size A3, and accompanied by the individual material (partichelas) of the corresponding part for each of the instruments as detailed in the annexes." But don't worry! There's a great monetary prize. Check it out.

Deadline: 31st October 2007. Click this link to Apply!

They are calling for submissions from composers age 32 or younger (no older than 32 by December 1, 2007). Only one submission per composer please. Winning composition will have their work performed by CCM, recorded and be compensated for travel, accommodations, score and parts copying.

The chamber works should be: 10 to 20 minutes in length, written in the past five years, for between 3 and 13 players, and draw from the following instruments: two violins, two violas, two cellos, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, two trumpets, trombone, piano, percussion.

This Competition excludes: Works scored for historically standard ensembles (string trio, string quartet, string quintet, string sextet, piano trio, piano quartet, piano quintet, woodwind quintet, brass quintet, flute quartet), commercially recorded works, and previously awarded works.

Composers, please submit your winning work by December 1, 2007 (postmark deadline). Send a cover letter, resume, including list of works, three copies of score, recording (encouraged but not required. MIDI is acceptable.), and self addressed stamped envelope if you would like materials returned to: The Chicago Chamber Musicians, Two Prudential Plaza, 180 N Stetson, Suite 1330, Chicago, IL 60601, Attn: 2008 Composition Competition

Selection of winners is at the discretion of The Chicago Chamber Musicians. CCM reserves the right to not award a prize in any given season should no work be deemed worthy.

Global Connections helps ensure that international audiences see and hear the impressive and creative range of work offered by today's living composers. It also helps support the creative and professional development of living composers through the performance of their work worldwide.

Please submit (postmark) your application by November 1, 2007 (for projects taking place July through December 2008). Click here to download the guidelines and application.

Under the baton of Maestro David Robertson, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will feature saxophonist Branford Marsalis performing:

Fauré - Sicilienne from Pelleas and Melisande
Debussy - Rhapsody for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
Copland - Clarinet Concerto (for soprano saxophone)
Adams - Harmonielehre

Concerts will take place on Friday, October 12 at 8 pm and Tuesday, October 16 at 7:30pm.

If you just can't wait to see him, the Art Institute of Chicago, will present for ‘A Conversation With Branford Marsalis.' Mr. Marsalis will discuss his innovative international musical career as well as his passion for collecting art, particularly the work of collagist Romare Bearden. He will be joined by Art Institute President and Director James Cuno. Thursday Oct 11, 6:00 pm at Fullerton Hall.

Visit the Chicago Symphony Orchestra web site for more detail.

Thomas, André Jerome.  Way over in Beulah lan': understanding and performing the Negro spiritual, with a foreword by Anton E. Armstrong.  Dayton: Heritage Music Press, a division of the Lorenz Corporation, 2007.  xvi, 272p.

This might well be the most important book on the subject, and it certainly is obligatory reading for all choral conductors and devotés of the spiritual - that font of American musical identity.

Dr. Thomas is the Owen F. Sellers Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Tallahassee's Florida State University, previously on the faculty of the University of Texas-Austin.  His education was secured in his hometown of Wichita, at Friends University (B.M.E.), Northwestern University (M.M., piano), and the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana).  He surveys a vast body of choral literature with the skills of a first-rate musicologist and bibliographer, totally satisfying the implications of the book's subtitle, which make up the two main areas of his study.  In the process, one is struck by what must be the extent of his library since every title was individually and carefully examined.

Read the full review

"I advise an aspiring artist to have determination but disclaim ambition. My ambition when I was studying was to sing at the MET. But then I later realized that if I did sing at the MET I would still be looking elsewhere and that would not be the end. A singer should always remain a student. Something can always be learned. The voice is nebulous. You can't put your finger on the trained mind. Caruso had to work everyday."

"OFFRANDES VODOUESQUES"

This disc features 24 melodies from the culture of the Haitian voodoo, collected then harmonized by the Haitian type-setter Werner Jaegerhuber (Port-au-Prince 1900 - Pétion-City 1953). Jaegerhuber resided in Haiti until 1915, the year which brought the first American occupation of Haiti. His father sent him for musical studies to the Voigt Academy of Hamburg in Germany, studies which he finished in 1922. Musician and ethnomusicologist, Werner Jaegerhuber left symphonies, a oratorio epic, works of chamber music, two operas and several masses. Its Mass on airs vaudouesques inaugurated the celebrations of the 150th birthday of the Independence of Haiti, in 1954.

Soprano Chantal Lavigne holds a control in interpretation of the University of Montreal. While taking part as soloist in various artistic productions, in the concerts of melodies, operas and sacred music, she teaches the vocal technique with the Lionel-Groulx college of Holy-Thérèse like in private studio. Ms. Lavigne already recorded Fantaisie in all tons them, a disc devoted to the melodies of Lionel Daunais under traditional Atma label.

David Bontemps starts musical studies as of his more young age in Port-au-Prince. Raise of the pianist and type-setter Serge Villedrouin, it successfully represents his country in inter-Caribbean contests of piano. Arrived at Montreal in 2002, it takes part in many concerts presenting the Haitian repertory.

Listen to some tracks!

The launching of a disc of Haitian classical music, sung as a former Creole, with the undeniable historical character, is an event not to be missed, a disc which it is absolutely necessary to get and recommend.

The concert is on Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 5 pm in Gesù Hall, 1200 Bleury Street, Montreal. $20 gets you in and includes the disc! For information and reservations, call 514-577-9257.

Liverpool, England-based Nigerian baritone and writer Tayo Aluko performs a self-written play titled Call Mr. Robeson, about the African American singer, actor, civil rights activist and renaissance man.

The play follows Robeson on a rollercoaster journey through his life as his growing radical activism causes him to be disowned and disremembered by America, including even leaders of the civil rights movement he partly pioneered. It features some of his famous songs and speeches which are cleverly woven into a narrative and include such dramatic highlights as his appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee and the famous 1949 outdoor concert at Peekskill, New York that literally caused a riot.

This labor of love has taken several years since Tayo was first introduced to Robeson's story about 12 years ago. After several drafts were tested on audiences in rehearsed readings in the UK, Tayo finally premiered the monodrama at the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland in August this year. He achieved the rare feat of receiving consistent 5-star ratings from delighted audience members who called it "Awesome"... "Spellbinding"... "Wonderful"... "Sensational"... "Compelling"... "Brilliant"...

Read the reviews!

Call Mr. Robeson will be one of the highlights of Liverpool's Black History Month calendar. The evening will commence with a supporting act featuring a tribute to another great African American singer, Billie Holiday, in a sketch written and directed by Mike Levanzin and performed by actress and singer Kat Beckford. 

Call Mr. Robeson is also now available for touring around the UK and the abroad, and any parties interested in booking Tayo to perform the play are invited to get in touch with him through his website.

Tayo will be performing the play in Liverpool, UK from 17th to 20th October 2007 at The Arts Centre, Liverpool Community College, Myrtle Street Liverpool. Tickets from £5 to £10 from Unity Theatre ticket office: (44) 151 709 4988.

Sigh...

AFRICAN HERITAGE TOURS IN LATIN AMERICA

For over 17 years, South Star Tours, Inc. has been an innovator in travel programs to Central and South America. According to them: The research and personal travel to Latin America by South Star Tours' founder and President, Sonia Vedov and the dedicated team behind its operation has led South Star Tours to create an inspiring range of tours that explore the most important historical, cultural and artistic gems directly related to the richness of the Black Culture which shines brightly in Latin America, more so in Brazil: Salvador da Bahia, where roots are deep, Candomblé ceremonies light up the hillsides at night, graceful capoeira dancers perform the ritualistic movements of their rebellious slave ancestors, and sample the distinctive flavors of a cuisine that reflects its people's heritages.

Rio de Janeiro, the former capital of Brazil, is well- known today for its famous beaches, Copacabana and Ipanema, the Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Corcovado, the Christ atop the mountain. Previous Colonial times brought in the African culture, and has left historical remains such as Pedra do Sal, Pyramid Square, Public Park, Carmo's Third Order Church, Black Men's Rosary Church and Carnival Museum.

The result heritage program can be viewed by visiting this link: http://www.southstartours.com/fd_africanhrtg.htm, which we believe could be promoted among your friends and partners. All tours are led by local expert guides in the field, visiting the most culturally rich and traditional locations. Whenever possible, we have local field experts present a lecture or visit important community leaders at their homes or temples. 

I don't know about you, but I'm sold. A vacation AND my research all at the same time? Yes please! Many thanks to Bill Zick for providing an escape route for the stressful times.

SOUTH STAR TOURS, 1050 Aviation Blvd., Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; (800) 654-4468; Skype: southstar01;
www.southstartours.com

I have heard with reasonably frequency of students who wished to perform music of a Black composer or conduct research on a Black topic.  In these cases, some faculty have stepped back.  While coaching the student in the performance of a work by an "accepted" composer, the student is given careful guidance.  But, if the composer of a work is identified to the teacher beforehand as a Black composer - even one whose music is not ethnically oriented - the faculty member will not touch it.  Instead, the student is advised to coach the work with someone of color.  Perhaps, like the non-Black singer, there is fear some ethnic or political matters will be barriers, but the reason could be less innocent.  To prepare a work by Bach, must one consult with a German Lutheran who lived in the 18th century?  No, of course not.  To listen, study, or perform music outside of one's own immediate heritage (temporal and/or geographic) is that aspect of education called acculturation.  We cannot listen to the music of Lasso with the ears and psychological orientation of his original audience, but by making that effort we broaden our horizon and gain potential insight into a different environment.

The moral in these instances, which should be sometimes anticipated, is not to mention the composer's ethnicity or, if this is already known, to justify the proposed work by stating that Saint-Georges was among the first Classicists to use the sonata form in French quartets or among the first to use the violin and keyboard as equal partners in the Classical sonata; that George Walker won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize in music; that Elgar admired the work of Coleridge-Taylor above that of Holst; that Will Marion Cook was a student of both Dvořák and Joachim; that Harry Burleigh and William Grant Still made formidable contributions to the definition of American music.

Dominique-René de Lerma, Lawrence University

Eric Thompson, bassist

Mr. Thompson is a pioneer! He was one of the first TDP students to be awarded an Azira G. Hill Scholarship for summer study, the first TDP student to win the ASYO concerto competition, the first to place in the national Sphinx Competition, the first TDP student to be a featured soloist with the ASO and the first to attend a conservatory. He is now the first TDP student to obtain employment in a professional orchestra, which comes only 14 years after the inception of the Program.  As TDP prepares to celebrate its 15th anniversary, this is a milestone accomplishment for the entire community to celebrate.

Many thanks to Ayden Adler, Director of the Talent Development Program, for his dedication and mentorship.

Congratulations are in order for the cast and crew of Margaret Garner, a bold opera that opened the NY City Opera season on September 11 running through September 29. The work, which is based on the historical story that inspired Toni Morrison's Beloved (and for which Morrison provided the libretto), premiered in May 2005 at Michigan Opera Theatre and had subsequent stagings at Cincinnati Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia. (The three companies co-commissioned the work.) The opera was originally written for mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Margaret Garner is based on one of the most significant and controversial fugitive slave stories in pre-Civil War America. Tracie Luck sang the title role, Lisa Daltirus was Cilla, Gregg Baker was Robert Garner, and Thomas Barrett was Edward Gaines.

"The opera tells the compelling story of Margaret Garner's quest for freedom. Fleeing Kentucky's Maplewood Plantation in 1856 to Ohio, Margaret Garner made the horrific decision to sacrifice her own children when capture was at hand, rather than see them returned to the bonds of slavery," state press materials. "Beyond the deep historical significance of the Margaret Garner story, the opera, as conceived by Richard Danielpour and Toni Morrison, will speak to audiences on a purely human level."

The cast and crew of New York City Opera did an excellent job. For those unable to see it, more details will be presented in the coming months. The opera is scheduled to debut in Chicago in November 2008.