Marian Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial, April 21, 1952. (© Bettmann/CORBIS/Corbis Images)
WQXR looks at the role of black performers, composers and music industry figures throughout the month of February.
MoreAs America's first black president begins his second term, the progress for African-Americans in classical music offers a more complex picture.
While blacks continue to play crucial roles in jazz, gospel, R&B, hip-hop and other popular styles, hurdles remain in classical music. Fewer than three percent of U.S. orchestral musicians are black. Opera has a greater concentration of black performers, though singers face their own set of challenges in terms of casting. And when a concert series highlights music by black composers, it's often as part of Black History Month or another special event.
But as histories like Eileen Southern's The Music of Black Americans show, a long history of black involvement with the concert hall precedes contemporary developments. And black influences stretch far and wide: jazz rhythms and blues intervals infuse the concert music of Stravinsky, Copland, Ives and countless more recent composers.
Below is a timeline of some of the major achievements in the tradition of black classical musicians. Please share your own pivotal moments for black classical musicians in the comments box below.
Sources include: The Music of Black Americans: A History; Eileen Southern, ed. (Third Edition); African-American Music: An Introduction, by Earl L. Stewart
WQXR commemorates Black History Month with a range of programming throughout February. Discover new works by black composers, and classic performances by African-American artists.
Comments [17]
Your record of the 1989 Detroit Symphony Orchestra crisis has several errors. The two state legislators who withheld their votes for $1.24 million did not serve on that committee again. There was a single full member at the time (Joseph Striplin... who is still there). And I was the one the musicians voted in (by a large margin). The orchestra also began a fellowship program which is still going. One of those fellows eventually won the principal trombone position. So DSO had 3 black members... until I resigned last year to help connect new audiences with classical sharing my arrangements, compositions and insights across the country. My comps blend some urban pop with classical counterpoint. It's alot of fun. Check out www.cuttime.com sometime.
I do not claim to be as great or advanced as the others mentioned on this page but classucal music is being carried in in ways beyond the traditional from digital composers like myself. We have as much passiin for the art as anyone and we shall continue to share it with the world.
Anthony Stewart
Digital Composer
Vizual Music
Vizualmusic.bandcamp.com
Thank you Mr McKnight and all who helped you get this timeline together. There's just so much I did not know about Black in Classical Music. I purchased several work by William Grant Still and am having a very delightful time.
I wanted to know if this timeline is available in PDF format or print format. I suppose by month's end the timeline will be gone. I would really appreciate a copy, I have so much learning to do. Thanks for all you do. I love your shows and I love the Jeff, Midge, and the choral music guy. I love WQXR I support it.
Where is Philippa Schuyler?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015nhxy
http://www.amazon.com/Composition-Black-White-Philippa-Schuyler/dp/0195113934
Where is the photo of Dr. George Walker, one of the greatest composer-pianist of any generation. Surely you must be aware of his famous Lyric for Strings, Trombone Concerto, Address for Orchestra, Lilacs and the incredible Violin Concerto. KUSC FM, an exceptional radio station in California, devoted five consecutive hours to his music two years ago and two additional hours this month. WQXR is a laggard.
Wynton Marsalis winning both classical and jazz Grammy awards (1983-84) is a major omission.
Joplin's left out because he is too often such a central figure?
As a African American I was thrilled to get all this good information and find out how much I don't know. Thanks for this time line. I am going to pass it on.
@Sisko: thank you for the suggestion of Stanford Allen. He is an important figure in the history of the Philharmonic and we've added his arrival to the timeline.
Of course, with such a sweeping history it's impossible to be entirely comprehensive. But we thank you all of your continued nominations. Keep 'em coming!
In classical music, spanning centuries and continents, there has been and continues to be a definite presence of black composers. They number in the many hundreds, yet we continue to know few and hear so little of their music.
Here is a basic QXR type question: How many of these black composers have something commercially recorded? My reply is more than two-hundred names.
There are many information resources and one useful composer name listing is the following: < http://astro.temple.edu/~rgreene/BlackComp/3_composers.htm >
This listing is a good start, but needs improvement. For example, while mentioning that Donald White was the first Black/African-American musician to join a 'Big Five' orchestra, the listing should also mention others who followed and the orchestras that hired them. Sanford Allen was the first Black member of the New York Philharmonic when he joined and because the NY Phil was then the only regularly telecast orchestra, he was seen by millions on the Young People's Concerts led by Leonard Bernstein. The simple fact of his presence was a revelation to many viewers including my grandfather who had grown up in Jim Crow era south and who watched him with wide-eyed wonder.
A respectable start. Two typos: Saint-eeorges (not aint-George), James de Preist (not James de Preist). Write on!
Perhaps QXR could open this up so the audience could put in these additional milestones and making a fuller list. Mattawilda Dobbs, James DePriest, Dorothy Maynor, just for a few more; it's an important history, with still some distance to go (who would have predicted that we would have a black president before we had a black music director at a major orchestra) or that we would have a Zulu principal at the Met before we had a black general manager of a large opera company.
I agree with Andrew B. - it's a really incomplete list! Information about the very early blank musicians & composers is most interesting, but I'd like to see this list expanded to include others missed along the way - and brought up to date.
I guess this is just a very short list. Omission of major opera singers - Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman - and pianists - Andre Watts, Awadagin Pratt - all of whom must have been among the first blacks with major recording contracts (although I'm certainly leaving out some others, who were more important). I guess the purpose of the list is just to hit the major milestones, or else there would be too many dates.
A young aspiring musicians also deserves note this month: violinist Tai Murray, the woodwind quintet Imani Winds... others please add to this list.
I enjoyed hearing William Grant Still's "Afro-American Symphony" this morning. It would be nice to hear it in other months of the year.
Florence Beatrice Smith Price was the first African-American female composer to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American symphony orchestra. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony in E Minor on June 15, 1933, under the direction of Frederick Stock. The work was later performed at the Chicago World’s Fair as part of the Century of Progress Exhibition.
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