2021/2022

In partnership with Howard University and the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts

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The program highlights Black women composers Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, explores the insights of Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois through letters and texts, and weaves together an illustration of their continuing legacy in shaping American culture. Featuring pianist Elizabeth Hill and the CAAPA Chorale; narrated by Jenn White of NPR’s 1A.

Part of PCE’s season program: The Rediscovery and Renewal of Black Classical Music

In partnership with Levine Music and THEARC

PCE celebrates the dazzling repertoire of solo piano pieces by Black as wells as white American composers inspired by Black vernacular sources. Pianist Elizabeth G. Hill and noted stride-piano specialist Steve Mayer trace the history of Harlem Piano from Scott Joplin to James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, and Art Tatum, also including works by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Antonin Dvorak, George Gershwin, and Margaret Bonds.

Part of PCE’s season program: The Rediscovery and Renewal of Black Classical Music

PCE celebrates composer William Dawson and features a forgotten masterpiece from this major Black symphonist. At its 1934 premiere by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony received a thunderous ovation and was hailed by some as the highest achievement in American symphonic music. But Dawson never found a publisher, and the music disappeared from view.

Part of PCE’s season program: The Rediscovery and Renewal of Black Classical Music

Be transported to another place and time, that of turn-of-the-century Vienna. The artistic explosion of the time mixed traditional sounds with folk influences from across the Austro-Hungarian empire, and arguably gave way to the emergence of Jazz. This performance features a never-before-heard rearrangement for chamber, recast specifically for international virtuoso, David Taylor, and his bass trombone.