by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
At 6 pm, Heights Arts Close Encounters will hold an open rehearsal of its program, “Music from an Age of Empires” at Cleveland Violins.
At 7:30, the Cleveland Museum of Art will host the cross-generational Khalife Trio in Lebanese classics, including new arrangements and original compositions, in Gartner Auditorium.
Also at 7:30. Kenneth Bean will lead the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble in works by Brian Raphael Nabors, Missy Mazzoli, Kristin Kuster, Sasha Paris-Carter, and Dai Fujikura in Warner Concert Hall.
For details of these and other events, please visit our Concert Listings page.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Les Délices announces that its latest SalonEra episode is now available on YouTube, Facebook, and all major podcast platforms. “Myth Then & Now” spotlights artists whose recent projects reflect mythology’s contemporary resonance. Guests Sophie Michaux & Adam Simon (Tiny Glass Tavern) share a recent performance centering St. Cecilia and Les Délices previews their recent world premiere of “A Moment’s Oblivion” with insights from composer Viet Cuong and tenor Nicholas Phan. Learn more here.
The Cleveland Orchestra announces that auditions will be held May 18, 20, and 21 for The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus and the Blossom Festival Chorus, on April 30, May 7, and May 8 for The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, and May 6 to 8 for The Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Chorus and Children’s Preparatory Chorus. Appointments are required and can be made online. Read a press release here.
Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project announces that tickets are now available for its Re:Sound new and experimental Music Festival on May 16 and 17 are now available. Read a flyer here.
ALMANAC:
Three memorable dates in Black American classical music history appear on today’s calendar: the birth of composer Florence Beatrice Price in 1887, the birth of bass and actor Paul Robeson in 1898, and Marian Anderson’s 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial, sponsored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, that drew a crowd of 75,000. The performance (pictured) protested the decision of the Daughters of the American Revolution to prevent the contralto from performing at the DAR’s Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
Having been neglected for decades, the music of Florence Price is now appearing on concert programs everywhere. We devoted much of the Diary on June 3, 2020 to Price on the anniversary of her death, and Lilyana D’Amato wrote about her in our Legacy of Black Musicians series on July 29, 2020. As more and more of her music is being re-engraved and re-issued, programmers will want to keep up with the progress of that project by visiting the Wisemusic catalog here.
Robeson had an eventful career that included venturing into the troubled political waters of mid-20th century America, where he fought against facism but got close enough to the communist party to be investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee. His life is summarized in the documentary Here I Stand, and a sample of his vocal artistry is available in this 1936, second version of Old Man River (note both versions of the lyrics in the notes).
And Marian Anderson, the first Black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, thrilled a huge audience on Easter Day, April 9, 1939 with a performance accompanied by Finnish pianist Kosti Vehanen. The occasion is treated in this short documentary, and the press had much to say about the incident.
The Philadelphia Tribune wrote, “A group of tottering old ladies, who don’t know the difference between patriotism and putridism, have compelled the gracious First Lady to apologize for their national rudeness.” The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote, “In these days of racial intolerance so crudely expressed in the Third Reich, an action such as the D.A.R.’s ban … seems all the more deplorable.” — Wikipedia article on Marian Andersonn.
