Professor Janise White, Founder & Director
AACMS Chamber Orchestra is an aggregate of 4 to 60 consummate musicians dedicated to the preservation of classical music by Black Composers of the diaspora founded by Janise White in 1988. The Afro-American Chamber Music Society has presented Black Symphony Concerts debuting on KFAC and later on KUSC in 1989 to the present, reviving a plethora of works by historic composers notably Le Chevalier de St Georges, Francis Johnson, William Postlewaite, James Hemmenway, Florence Price, John E. Price, Fela Sowande, Jose Mauricio Nuñes Garcia, Carlos Gomes, Lucien Lambert, Ignatius Sancho, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Julia Amanda Perry, Philippa Duke Schuyler and William Grant Still. They also commissioned and premiered works by living composers Ed Bland, Gertrude Rivers-Robinson, Barbara Sherrill, Zenobia Powell Perry, William Henderson, Joyce Solomon Moorman, Jeraldine Saunders Herbison, Howlett Smith, Stephen James Taylor, Frederick Tillis, Christian Horton, Charles Ingram, James Lee, Shirley Thompson, Derrick Skye among others.
AACMSO has toured California Colleges and Universities with Judith Still; appeared with Roots author, Alex Haley; guest conductors Denis DeCoteau, Kermit Moore and Michael Morgan. The orchestra has performed at the Blackburn Art Gallery of Howard University for the King Monument Celebration Concerts, San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora, California African American Museum Concerts, Museum of Latin American Art Black History Festivals, Los Angeles Music Center Concerts for the BEEM Foundation, Los Angeles Convention Center for the National Baptist Convention, Medici Awards, DaCamera Society Concerts, over 100 Los Angeles School Concerts (ICAP), National Association of Musicians Convention in Virginia, Los Angeles and Atlanta, University of Southern California Fisher Gallery, USC Hancock Hall with Dr. William Henderson; USC Bovard with Denis DeCoteau, UCLA Schoenberg with Michael Morgan, USC Bovard Auditorium with Dance Theatre of Harlem, AMNA (Africa Meets North America) Festivals at UCLA Schoenberg Hall, New York City, and the University of the Virgin Islands; Western Arts Alliance Conference at the Los Angeles Marriott, British Library for the West Africa Exhibit and the BBC Radio for “Black In Britain Series" & "Britain's Black Past."
AACMSO is listed in various encyclopedias and textbooks for perpetuating the music of Black Symphonists through live performances: The Bibliography of Black Composers by Dominique Rene de Lerma; International Dictionary of Black Composers by Samuel Floyd, Jr.; Brass Music of Black Composers by Aaron Horne; Music by Black Women Composers by Helen Walker Hill; African-American Women Women Composers by Helen Walker Hill; Black American Music: Past & Present by Hildred Roach and Encyclopedia of Women Composers by Aaron Cohen.
Janise White, Founder & Director. Noted scholar and pianist, Professor White serves as Music Professor at West Los Angeles College in Culver City. A child prodigy, she began piano lessons at Mills College at age 4 under Mr. James Beail. She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Bachelor of Music, Adolph Baller), University of Southern California (Master of Music, Daniel Pollack); California State University, Hayward (Choral Credential and Bachelor of Music Education) with Artist Diploma Studies at Oberlin Conservatory with Frances Walker and Master Classes with Karl Ulrich Schnabel. White studied conducting with the late Denis de Coteau, San Francisco Ballet Conductor. She is mentioned in American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences: A Bibliographic Survey by Dr. Ora Williams; “African American Music, A Chronology by Dr. Hansonia Caldwell, Black Music Research Journal by Samuel Floyd, The Magic of Music by Leroy Hurte, Bibliography of Black Music and the Greenwood Encyclopedia by Dr. Dominique Rene de-Lerma.
AACMSO has toured California Colleges and Universities with Judith Still; appeared with Roots author, Alex Haley; guest conductors Denis DeCoteau, Kermit Moore and Michael Morgan. The orchestra has performed at the Blackburn Art Gallery of Howard University for the King Monument Celebration Concerts, San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora, California African American Museum Concerts, Museum of Latin American Art Black History Festivals, Los Angeles Music Center Concerts for the BEEM Foundation, Los Angeles Convention Center for the National Baptist Convention, Medici Awards, DaCamera Society Concerts, over 100 Los Angeles School Concerts (ICAP), National Association of Musicians Convention in Virginia, Los Angeles and Atlanta, University of Southern California Fisher Gallery, USC Hancock Hall with Dr. William Henderson; USC Bovard with Denis DeCoteau, UCLA Schoenberg with Michael Morgan, USC Bovard Auditorium with Dance Theatre of Harlem, AMNA (Africa Meets North America) Festivals at UCLA Schoenberg Hall, New York City, and the University of the Virgin Islands; Western Arts Alliance Conference at the Los Angeles Marriott, British Library for the West Africa Exhibit and the BBC Radio for “Black In Britain Series" & "Britain's Black Past."
AACMSO is listed in various encyclopedias and textbooks for perpetuating the music of Black Symphonists through live performances: The Bibliography of Black Composers by Dominique Rene de Lerma; International Dictionary of Black Composers by Samuel Floyd, Jr.; Brass Music of Black Composers by Aaron Horne; Music by Black Women Composers by Helen Walker Hill; African-American Women Women Composers by Helen Walker Hill; Black American Music: Past & Present by Hildred Roach and Encyclopedia of Women Composers by Aaron Cohen.
Janise White, Founder & Director. Noted scholar and pianist, Professor White serves as Music Professor at West Los Angeles College in Culver City. A child prodigy, she began piano lessons at Mills College at age 4 under Mr. James Beail. She holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Bachelor of Music, Adolph Baller), University of Southern California (Master of Music, Daniel Pollack); California State University, Hayward (Choral Credential and Bachelor of Music Education) with Artist Diploma Studies at Oberlin Conservatory with Frances Walker and Master Classes with Karl Ulrich Schnabel. White studied conducting with the late Denis de Coteau, San Francisco Ballet Conductor. She is mentioned in American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences: A Bibliographic Survey by Dr. Ora Williams; “African American Music, A Chronology by Dr. Hansonia Caldwell, Black Music Research Journal by Samuel Floyd, The Magic of Music by Leroy Hurte, Bibliography of Black Music and the Greenwood Encyclopedia by Dr. Dominique Rene de-Lerma.
Sponsors of AACMS
California Arts Council
Los Angeles County Arts Commission
Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles
Lighthouse Memorials & Receptions
