ABOUT THE COMPOSERS
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COMPOSERS
JULIA AMANDA PERRY, (1924-1979), VIOLINIST, COMPOSER (KENTUCKY)
Ms. Perry began her formal music training with piano studies and later received degrees from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey (B.M. in voice and M.M. in composition with further studies at the Julliard School and Berkshire Music Center and abroad with Nadia Boulanger and Luigi Dallapiccola.
During her stay in Europe she toured as lecturer on American music under the auspices of the United States Information Service and in 1957 organized and conducted a concert series. She held tenures at Florida A & M College in 1967-68 and at Atlanta University in 1968-69.
Perry composed 12 symphonies, three operas, two piano concertos, works for chamber orchestra, piano and other instrumental pieces and songs. She is regarded as one of the most talented female composers of her generation in the United States. Her compositions are essentially written in the neoclassical style, combining a sensitive use of harmonic dissonance with a preference for contrapuntal textures and an intense lyricism.
FRANCIS HALL JOHNSON (1888-1970), VIOLINIST, VIOLIST AND CHOIR DIRECTOR (ATHENS, GEORGIA)
Johnson is a graduate of Knox Institute, Clark Atlanta University and the University of Pennsylvania (B.M. in music in 1910). He performed with the dance orchestras of Vernon and Irene Castle; Will Marion Cook’s Southern Syncopated Orchestra and participated with Broadway productions Shuffle Along, Run Little Chillun and movies: Green Pastures, Hearts Divided, Banjo on My Knee, Lost Horizon, Dumbo, Tales of Manhattan, and in the Sky. In 1951, the Hall Johnson Choir was chosen by the U.S. Department of State to represent America at the International Festival of Fine Arts, held in West Berlin, Germany.
ROLAND HAYES (1887-1977) LYRIC TENOR, COMPOSER (CURRYVILLE, GEORGIA)
Hayes graduated from Fisk University and became the tenor in the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. Hayes was an American lyric tenor and composer who made his debut in 1915 in Manhattan, New York in concerts presented by orchestra leader Walter F. Craig. Early in his career, he toured black churches and colleges in the South. In 1917, he debuted at the Boston Symphony Hall. During his illustrious career, he made several appearances in Carnegie Hall Concerts. He toured Europe several times singing in seven different languages. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills demonstrated with songs in French, German and Italian.He also performed at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Germany. He performed privately for King George and Queen Mary of England. Hayes is noted as one of the first African American concert artist to record when he recorded with Columbia in 1939. He published musical scores for a collection of spirituals in 1948 as My Songs: Aframerican Religious Folk Songs Arranged and Interpreted. Hayes taught at Black Mountain College.
FRANCIS JOHNSON (1792-1844) TRUMPETER, BANDLEADER (ST. MARTINIQUE)
Hailing from the Island of St. Martinique, Francis Johnson became the first published African American to conduct bands for high ranking military officers and aristocracy in Philadelphia. Following his band tour to England in 1838 with a performance for Queen Victoria, Francis returned to the United States and introduced the promenade grand march which immediately became a hit with aristocracy. Johnson a prolific composer wrote over 300 works. His all African American band performed for the military regiments in Philadelphia: The Washington Guards Company, Washington Grays, The State Fencibles Regiment and The First Troop Philadelphia City Calvary. In 1824, Johnson’s band supplied the music for the celebration surrounding General Lafayette’s triumphant return to Philadelphia. His best known works include: General Lafayette’s Grand March, Washington Grays Kent Bugle Slow March and Quickstep and General Cadwalader’s March. He introduced the Grand March which he led for many parties of the aristocracy. Additionally, he was the seminal figure in the Philadelphia School where he trained and produced military composers and their works.
Corporal Joseph William Postlewaite (1827-1889 Band Leader; (St. Louis, Missouri)
Postlewaite conducted four groups: Postlewaite’s Quadrille Band, the National Band, Postlewaite’s Orchestra, Postlewaite’s Cotillion Band, the St. Louis Great Western Band and the Great Western Reed and String Band. His most popular work “St. Louis Greys Quick Step” went into a fifteenth printing! As Corporal in th 148th Infantry, Postlewaite played for his Infantry in addition to composing many dances and marches for military events. He also composed and performed for “slave balls” in Missouri where slaves imitated the white cotillions. His best known works include: The St. Louis Greys Quick Step, St. Louis National Guards Quick Step, Dew Drop Scottisch, Iola Waltz and Galena Waltz. In total, he composed at least 37 pieces all of which were typical for secular dance music for the 19th century white society.
Dean of Afro-American Composers William Grant Still, 1895-1978
WILLIAM GRANT STILL, 1895-1978, DEAN of AFRICAN AMERICAN COMPOSERS
William Grant Still studied at Wilberforce University, Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, where his mentors were composers George W. Chadwick and Edgard Varese. He produced more than 150 compositions including five symphonies, six operas, four ballets and many choral and instrumental works most of which were premiered during his lifetime. While a prolific composer, he achieved many significant unprecendented achievements which have been historically documented. Still was the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in 1936 when he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywod Bowl in a program of his own works. He was first to use the Blues in the theme of the Afro-American Symphony. Still wrote for film and television shows including Pennies from Heaven, Stormy Weather, Lost Horizon, Gunsmoke and the original theme for the Perry Mason show. He is regarded as the Dean of African American composers, who championed the art of writing in major forms including opera, symphony and ballet.
William Grant Still studied at Wilberforce University, Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, where his mentors were composers George W. Chadwick and Edgard Varese. He produced more than 150 compositions including five symphonies, six operas, four ballets and many choral and instrumental works most of which were premiered during his lifetime. While a prolific composer, he achieved many significant unprecendented achievements which have been historically documented. Still was the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in 1936 when he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywod Bowl in a program of his own works. He was first to use the Blues in the theme of the Afro-American Symphony. Still wrote for film and television shows including Pennies from Heaven, Stormy Weather, Lost Horizon, Gunsmoke and the original theme for the Perry Mason show. He is regarded as the Dean of African American composers, who championed the art of writing in major forms including opera, symphony and ballet.
JERALDINE SAUNDERS HERBISON (1941-, VIOLINIST, COMPOSER (VIRGINIA)
Mrs. Herbison is a native of Richmond, Virginia. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Virginia State College in 1963 with a major in Violin and minors in Voice and Piano. Teachers who greatly influenced her compositional techniques were Undine Smith Moore, of Virginia State University, and Dr. Thomas Clark of the University of Michigan division of the National Music Camp at Interlochen. Her teaching career from 1963 to July of 1998, she taught Instrumental and Choral Music, directing string orchestra, band and chorus in the public schools of Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. As a performer, she has played with ensembles and orchestras such as the Hampton University Orchestra, HICO String Quartet, Norfolk State University Orchestra and the York River Symphony Orchestra where she plays cello.
Herbison is a composer of over 100 works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choral music, art songs, and instrumental solos. Her works have been performed for various organizations including the Society of Composers, Inc.; The Tidewater Composer’s Guild, Old Dominion University, Richmond Philharmonic, and The First National Congress of Women in Music at New York University and The Composer’s Forum of The National Black Colloquium Competition at the Kennedy Center. Many of her works have been performed by Peninsula Chamber Chambers, York River Orchestra Ensemble, Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra, Nova Trio, Richmond Symphony, York River Symphony, Norfolk State University Orchestra and the Hampton University Orchestra.
Herbison is listed in “A New Anthology of Art Songs by Contemporary African American Composers” by Margaret Simmons and Jeanne Wagner; “Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music 1893-1990” by Helen Walker-Hill; Rachel Elizabeth Barton (REB) Foundation: The String Student’s Library of Music by Black Composers; Black Music Past and Present” Vol. 2 by Hildred Roach; The International Dictionary of Women Composers by Aaron Cohen; and The International Dictionary of Black Composers by Samuel Floyd. Herbison is the widow of the late Dr. James Herbison, cellist with the Virginia Symphony and former Professor of Music at Hampton University and Norfolk State University; the mother of one son, three grandchildren, one great-grandchild and a dog, Franny.
Mrs. Herbison is a native of Richmond, Virginia. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Virginia State College in 1963 with a major in Violin and minors in Voice and Piano. Teachers who greatly influenced her compositional techniques were Undine Smith Moore, of Virginia State University, and Dr. Thomas Clark of the University of Michigan division of the National Music Camp at Interlochen. Her teaching career from 1963 to July of 1998, she taught Instrumental and Choral Music, directing string orchestra, band and chorus in the public schools of Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. As a performer, she has played with ensembles and orchestras such as the Hampton University Orchestra, HICO String Quartet, Norfolk State University Orchestra and the York River Symphony Orchestra where she plays cello.
Herbison is a composer of over 100 works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, choral music, art songs, and instrumental solos. Her works have been performed for various organizations including the Society of Composers, Inc.; The Tidewater Composer’s Guild, Old Dominion University, Richmond Philharmonic, and The First National Congress of Women in Music at New York University and The Composer’s Forum of The National Black Colloquium Competition at the Kennedy Center. Many of her works have been performed by Peninsula Chamber Chambers, York River Orchestra Ensemble, Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra, Nova Trio, Richmond Symphony, York River Symphony, Norfolk State University Orchestra and the Hampton University Orchestra.
Herbison is listed in “A New Anthology of Art Songs by Contemporary African American Composers” by Margaret Simmons and Jeanne Wagner; “Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music 1893-1990” by Helen Walker-Hill; Rachel Elizabeth Barton (REB) Foundation: The String Student’s Library of Music by Black Composers; Black Music Past and Present” Vol. 2 by Hildred Roach; The International Dictionary of Women Composers by Aaron Cohen; and The International Dictionary of Black Composers by Samuel Floyd. Herbison is the widow of the late Dr. James Herbison, cellist with the Virginia Symphony and former Professor of Music at Hampton University and Norfolk State University; the mother of one son, three grandchildren, one great-grandchild and a dog, Franny.
SAMUEL COLERIDGE-TAYLOR (1875-1912), Composer
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) Croydon Conservatory, Trinity College of Music and Royal College of Music Professor studied the violin at the Royal College of Music and composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. He also taught, soon being appointed a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music; and conducted the orchestra at the Croydon Conservatoire. He made three tours to America by invitation of the Coleridge Taylor Society and in 1904 received a silver cup from President Roosevelt. At a Royal College of Music concert in March 1896, his daughter, Avril reports, the composer Gustav Holst (The Planets) was playing the trombone while another great composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, played the triangle. Coleridge-Taylor not only influenced some of the greatest composers but his significant accomplishment is the classical development and symphonization African American folk songs, spirituals and African folk music as did Dvorak and Brahms. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was an Afro-British composer who wrote a blockbuster musical called Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in 1898. It was performed 200 times in his short lifetime, and made his name a household word on both sides of the Atlantic. Half a century after his death, recordings of his music barely existed.
A LIST OF BLACK COMPOSERS PERFORMED BY AACMSO
Le Chevalier de St Georges, Francis Johnson, Francis Hall Johnson, Henry Thacker Burleigh, William Postlewaite, Scott Joplin, James Hemmenway, Florence Price, Thomas Bethune, John E. Price, Fela Sowande, Antonio Jose da Silva,
Jose Mauricio Nuñes Garcia, Antonio Carlos Gomes, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Lucien Lambert, Ignatius Sancho, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Julia Amanda Perry, Philippa Duke Schuyler, Betty Jackson King, Undine Smith Moore, William Grant Still, Roland Hayes, George Walker, Jester Hairston, Jacqueline Hairston, Ed Bland, Olly Wilson, Gertrude Rivers-Robinson, Barbara Sherrill, Zenobia Powell Perry, William Henderson, Joyce Solomon Moorman, Jeraldine Saunders Herbison, Howlett Smith, Stephen James Taylor, James P. Johnson, James Reese Europe, Frederick Tillis, Christian Horton, Charles Ingram, James Newton, James Lee, III; Shirley Thompson, UK; Adolphus Hailstork, Hale Smith, Derrick Skye, Jessie Montgomery, Julius Williams, Cheryl Keyes, Michael Abels, Kris Bowers and Daniel Roumain.
BLACK PULITZER PRIZE WINNING COMPOSERS
Dr. George Theophilus Walker, 1996
Tania Leon, 2021
Michael Abels, 2022
Rhiannon Giddens, 2023
Tyshawn Sorrey, 2024
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) Croydon Conservatory, Trinity College of Music and Royal College of Music Professor studied the violin at the Royal College of Music and composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. He also taught, soon being appointed a professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music; and conducted the orchestra at the Croydon Conservatoire. He made three tours to America by invitation of the Coleridge Taylor Society and in 1904 received a silver cup from President Roosevelt. At a Royal College of Music concert in March 1896, his daughter, Avril reports, the composer Gustav Holst (The Planets) was playing the trombone while another great composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, played the triangle. Coleridge-Taylor not only influenced some of the greatest composers but his significant accomplishment is the classical development and symphonization African American folk songs, spirituals and African folk music as did Dvorak and Brahms. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was an Afro-British composer who wrote a blockbuster musical called Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in 1898. It was performed 200 times in his short lifetime, and made his name a household word on both sides of the Atlantic. Half a century after his death, recordings of his music barely existed.
A LIST OF BLACK COMPOSERS PERFORMED BY AACMSO
Le Chevalier de St Georges, Francis Johnson, Francis Hall Johnson, Henry Thacker Burleigh, William Postlewaite, Scott Joplin, James Hemmenway, Florence Price, Thomas Bethune, John E. Price, Fela Sowande, Antonio Jose da Silva,
Jose Mauricio Nuñes Garcia, Antonio Carlos Gomes, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Lucien Lambert, Ignatius Sancho, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Julia Amanda Perry, Philippa Duke Schuyler, Betty Jackson King, Undine Smith Moore, William Grant Still, Roland Hayes, George Walker, Jester Hairston, Jacqueline Hairston, Ed Bland, Olly Wilson, Gertrude Rivers-Robinson, Barbara Sherrill, Zenobia Powell Perry, William Henderson, Joyce Solomon Moorman, Jeraldine Saunders Herbison, Howlett Smith, Stephen James Taylor, James P. Johnson, James Reese Europe, Frederick Tillis, Christian Horton, Charles Ingram, James Newton, James Lee, III; Shirley Thompson, UK; Adolphus Hailstork, Hale Smith, Derrick Skye, Jessie Montgomery, Julius Williams, Cheryl Keyes, Michael Abels, Kris Bowers and Daniel Roumain.
BLACK PULITZER PRIZE WINNING COMPOSERS
Dr. George Theophilus Walker, 1996
Tania Leon, 2021
Michael Abels, 2022
Rhiannon Giddens, 2023
Tyshawn Sorrey, 2024