“Black Pioneers in Classical Music” Black History Month Concert

The National Philharmonic expands the musical conversation happening in our area in celebration of Black History Month with a performance on Saturday, February 22nd called “Black Pioneers in Classical Music”, that includes important and rarely heard compositions by African-American composers. It features violinist Melissa White, a first-prize laureate in the Sphinx Competition, founding member of the Harlem Quartet, and artist of color, as soloist on a piece by composer Florence Price. The concert is at 8pm at the Music Center at Strathmore, and there will be a pre-concert lecture from 6:45-7:15pm.

Melissa White is widely acclaimed for her solo performances with ensembles that include The Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras. Through her performances with the Harlem Quartet, she has worked with famed classical artists like Itzhak Perlman and Ida Kavakian and played in venerable venues including The Kennedy Center, the White House, and Carnegie Hall. On a more populist note, White was the the violinist on the score for Jordan Peele’s US, written by composer Michael Abels in his second collaboration with Peele, after Get Out. Frustrated by the lack of African-American composers in Hollywood, Peele actually found Abels when searching through YouTube, and discovering a video of the Harlem Quartet playing a piece called Urban Legends, which had been commissioned by the Sphinx Organization.

White has worked with the Philharmonic before. In the 2017-18 season, she made her debut under current Musical Director Piotr Gajewski, who will be conducting the February 22nd concert. “Black Classical Music Pioneers” concert really is offering pieces by artists representative of historic musicians of the 20th and 21st century.

The concert features Wild Strumming of Fiddle by Wynton Marsalis, from his colossal achievement, the 12 movement piece “All Rise”, one famed concert of which played only days after 9/11 at the Hollywood Bowl. CNN broadcast portions of the concert live, making it one of the first global cultural events in the aftermath of September 11th.

Composer Florence Price is considered the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.
The work being performed at the concert will be her Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major. It was rediscovered in 2009, over 50 years after her death, in an abandoned house outside St. Anne, Illinois. In her lifetime, which spanned from 1887 to 1953, she had some recognition, but found it difficult to get recognition in a world that largely celebrated composers that were white, male, and dead. In 1943, she wrote to conductor Serge Koussevitzky, “To begin with I have two handicaps—those of sex and race. I am a woman; and I have some Negro blood in my veins.”

When asked about playing the Concerto No. 1, Melissa White spoke about how honored she was to be amplifying Florence Price's incredible music. "It’s so amazing to get to present this work. A lot of Black history is starting to come to light now. We should know these important people." She continued, "For me as a Black female, to get to be a living part of our Black history, and share something from the past with audiences today is so exciting. It feels very powerful to be a woman of color, presenting a woman of color, who is embedded into the fabric of Black history."

Also part of the concert is George Walker’s Lyric for Strings. Walker, who lived from 1922-2018, is the first African-American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music, which he won for Lilacs in 1996. He is also the first African-American instrumentalist to play at Manhattan’s Town Hall. He has a connection to the Washington area, having gone to Howard University, which hosted his first public recital at 14.

Lastly, the concert will include William Grant Still’s Afro-American, Symphony No. 1. Still lived between 1895 and 1978, and was referred to as the “Dean of Afro-American Composers”. His diverse musical education spanned from training at the New England Conservatory of Music and under composer Edgard Varèse, to working as arranger for bandleader Paul Whiteman, and blues composer W.C. Handy. When the Rochester Symphony Orchestra premiered Symphony No. 1 in 1931, it was the first time in the history of the US that a major orchestra premiered a symphony written by a Black person. He was also the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to conduct a symphony orchestra.

The Philharmonic continues their program of offering free tickets to children aged 7-17, and recently announced its “Thank You for Serving” program which offers 25% for military personnel and their families with a military ID, using the promo code THX25. For tickets or more information, go to https://www.strathmore.org/events-and-tickets/np-black-classical-music-pioneers. or call the ticket office at 301-581-5100.