Douglas Sumi, Piano

Program

Florence Price (1887 - 1953)

Hold Fast to Dreams (Langston Hughes) Nina Evelyn Anderson, soprano  

Song to the Dark Virgin (Langston Hughes) Morgan Beckford, soprano

Trouble Done Come My Way (Florence Price)  Keith Eric Brinkley, baritone

Margaret Bonds  (1913 - 1972)

The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Langston Hughes) Poeme d'Automne (Langston Hughes) Morgan Beckford, Soprano

To a Brown Girl Dead (Countee Cullen) Keith Eric Brinkley, Baritone

H. Leslie Adams (b 1932)

Night Songs

Prayer (Langston Hughes)   Drums of Tragedy (Langston Hughes)

The Heart of A Woman (Georgia Douglas Johnson)

Night Song (Clarissa Scott Delany)

Sence You Went Away (James Weldon Johnson)

Creole Girl (Leslie Morgan Collins) Fred C. VanNess Jr., Tenor

- Intermission -

Jeremiah Evans (b 1978)

Lost Illusions (Georgia Douglas Johnson)

Southern Mansion (Arna Bontemps)

April Song (Langston Hughes) Marcus Schenck, Baritone

Robert Owens (1925-2017)

Mortal Storm

A house in Taos (Langston Hughes)

Little Song (Langston Hughes)

Jaime (Langston Hughes)

Marcus Schenck, Baritone

Faithful One (Langston Hughes)

Genius Child (Langston Hughes) Keith Eric Brinkley, Baritone

Hall Johnson (1988-1970)

Mother to Son (Langston Hughes) Morgan Beckford, Soprano

Harry Burleigh (1866-1949)

Lovely, Dark, and Lonely One (Langston Hughes)

William Grant Still (1895-1978)

A Black Pierrot (Langston Hughes) Nina Evelyn Anderson, Soprano

Lift Every Voice and Sing ( James Weldon Johnson)     John Rosemond Johnson (1873-1954)

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Notes

Florence Price (1887-1953) was a pianist and music teacher known as the first Black woman composer to have her composition played by a major orchestra (Symphony No. 1 in E minor performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933). She studied composition here in Boston at New England Conservatory and built her career in Chicago as a pianist and teacher. She composed over 100 songs for voice and piano.

Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) was a pianist, arranger, and teacher. Bonds studied composition with Florence Price when she was in high school in Chicago. She was one of the first Black composers to gain recognition in the United States, largely due to soprano Leontyne Price commissioning and recording her works. She is most known for her spiritual arrangements and frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes. Bonds and Hughes were great friends, and collaborated on “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Songs of the Seasons, and Three Dream Portraits. 

Compositions by H. Leslie Adams (b. 1932) have been performed by the Prague Radio Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Indianapolis Symphony. He is best known for his vocal compositions, including choral music, art songs, vocal solos, and music drama. Adams’ compositions exhibit lots of influence from jazz and traditional spirituals.

Robert Owens (1925-2017) was a concert pianist, stage and television actor who spent most of his career as an American expatriate in Europe. After serving in the army during World War II, he used the GI Bill to complete his music studies in Paris and Vienna. Owens met Hughes in New York City in 1958, and at this meeting, Hughes gifted him Fields of Wonder, a collection of his lyrical poetry, and told him to “see what he could do with it.” Owens wrote six song cycles using this collection, including Mortal Storm, Op. 29.

A singer first, Harry Burleigh (1886-1949) became an important contributor to the development of American music. Throughout his career, he made Black music available to classically trained artists by introducing them to spirituals. Additionally, he introduced Antonín Dvořák to Black American music, influencing some of Dvořák's most famous compositions and leading him to say that Black music would be the basis of American classical music. While he is most known for his spiritual arrangements, he has composed over 100 secular art songs as well. “Lovely, Dark, and Lonely One” is a musical setting of Hughes’ poem “Song.” 

William Grant Still (1895-1978) wrote over 200 works including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, art songs, chamber music, and works for solo instruments. He is known as the “Dean of Afro-American composers” because he was the first Black composer to have an opera produced by New York City Opera, the first to have his symphony performed by a major orchestra (Afro-American Symphony premiered by Eastman Rochester Philharmonic in 1931), the first to conduct a major symphony orchestra, and the first to have his opera performed on national television. “A Black Pierrot” is excerpted from Still’s Songs of Separation.