#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 made 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, in 1898. It was one of 92 works he published before his death at age 37.
