The Black Virtuoso Tradition

Drew Peterson, pianist

Josephine Baker

John Edward Hasse, guest curator

Felix Conteras, conga

Ellington Carthan, pianist and narrator

Jeffrey Mumford, guest curator

Annie Jacobs-Perkins, cello

Katerina Burton, soprano

CAAPA Choir

Robin De Jesús, actor

David Strathairn, actor

Kevork Mourad, artist

Derek Goldman, playwright/director

José Sacín, bass baritone (Don Quihote)

Israel Lozano, tenor (Master Peter)

Jennifer Zetlan, soprano (Trujaman)

Ricardo Marlow, Flamenco guitar

Philip Kennicott, guest curator

Hany Hassan FAIA, visuals

The Black Virtuoso Tradition

In partnership with Levine School and THEARC

A concert of virtuoso piano fireworks by composers Black and white drawing on the African-American vernacular. Pianist Elizabeth Hill and noted stride-piano specialist Steve Mayer take audiences on a musical journey playing Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Antonin Dvorak, Scott Joplin, James P. Johnson, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, George Gershwin and Margaret Bonds.

This concert is the second of three in PCE’s season-long project, The Rediscovery and Renewal of Black Classical Music, which seeks to elevate consequential composers who have too long been neglected for all their profound contributions to American orchestral music. PCE has long been a national leader in unearthing this buried history. By contextualizing this story– where the music came from, why it disappeared, and what to make of it today– we reflect on our nation’s complex cultural history and gain insight into how to nurture understanding and dialogue.

The project coincides with Joe Horowitz’s new book Dvorak’s Prophecy and the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music, to be released by Norton in November 2021.

“Piano playing at its most awesome” – The New York Times on Mayer playing Tatum

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George Shirley, the first Black tenor to sing leading roles at the Met Opera, writes:

"As Joe Horowitz puts it in "Dvorak’s Prophecy", classical music in America “stayed white.” PostClassical Ensemble’s Black Classical Music Festival explores how and why that happened – and also proposes remedies...

It will be a landmark event in excavating a part of the African-American cultural legacy heretofore barely even glimpsed. I am eager to be a partner in this vital activity.

Because of our current conversation about race, we now observe a seemingly desperate effort to make up for lost time, to present Black faces in the concert hall. I think that’s only fair. But if it’s going to become a permanent new way of thinking, there has to be new understanding.

Joe’s Dvorak’s Prophecy is on time, it’s a bull’s-eye. As Mark Clague puts it, “the future of American classical music is very much at stake. We have been left unprepared for the current cultural moment.” Dvorak’s Prophecy explains how we got there. It proposes a bigger world of American classical music than what we have known before. It is more diverse and more equitable. And it is more truthful."
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Mark Clague, my colleague at the University of Michigan, has called the American music story he himself was taught “malnourished.” Mark further describes an “impoverished disconnect between the rich history of Black American music and the all-but entirely white and European classical-music repertoire studied in American music schools and, not coincidently, heard in the nation’s concert halls.”

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Program

Concert

The Black Virtuoso Tradition

Saturday, February 26, 2021 at 3:00 p.m.

A free one-day-only concert in person at THEARC

THEARC | 1901 Mississippi Ave SE, Washington, DC
and live streamed on PCE’s YouTube Channel

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Digital Program

Elizabeth G. Hill, piano

Steven Mayer, piano

Melissa Constantin, soprano

Produced by Joseph Horowitz, Executive Producer PostClassical Ensemble

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Program

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869): The Banjo
Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904): American Suite, movement 3 (Allegretto)
Antonin Dvorak: Humoresque in G-flat major
Art Tatum (1909-1956): Humoresque
Art Tatum: Tiger Rag ‍
Steven Mayer
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Scott Joplin (1868-1917): The Favorite: A Ragtime Two-Step ‍
George Gershwin (1898-1937): Two Preludes ‍
Elizabeth Hill
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James P. Johnson (1894-1955): Blueberry Rhyme
Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941): Frances
Fats Waller (1904-1943): Taint Nobody’s Business ‍
Steven Mayer
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Florence Price (1887-1953): Fantasie Negre No. 4
Florence Price: Piano Pieces (1947)
Harry Burleigh (1866-1949): Wade in the Water (sung by Melissa Constantin)
Margaret Bonds: (1913-1972): Troubled Water ‍
Elizabeth Hill

Post-Concert Discussion

The concert is free, but donations are welcome.

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Special Thanks to the Leadership Council

Terri Allen
Executive Director
Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts
‍‍Dr. Gwynne Brown
Professor of Musicology
University of Puget Sound
Kevette Burwell
Duke Ellington School of the Arts Alumni Association
Dr. Lorenzo F. Candelaria
Professor of Musicology
Vanderbilt University
Catherine Chieco, MS, MSW
Writer
‍Dr. Mark Clague
Associate Professor of Musicology
University of Michigan
‍Eugenia V. Colón, CFRE
President & CEO
Colón & Associates, LLC‍
Dr. John Michael Cooper
Professor of Music
Southwestern University‍
Christopher Cowan
Director, U.S. International
Development Finance Corp.
Isaac Daniel
Assistant Principal
Duke Ellington School for the Arts
‍Kevin Deas
Baritone
Kehembe V. Eichelberger
Associate Professor Voice
Howard University
Regan Leslie Ford
Director, SE Washington, DC, Campus
Levine Music
‍Dr. Matthew Franke
Master Instructor
Howard University
Jennifer Hayman
Director of Music and Arts
All Souls Church Unitarian
Melvin and Juanita Hardy
Millennium Arts Salon
Mary and Philip Kopper
Advocates for the performing arts
Marty Austin Lamar
Director of Music and Creative Arts
Metropolitan A.M.E. Church
‍Jocelyn McClure
Duke Ellington School of the Arts Alumni Association
‍Tony and Buffy Miles
Advocates for the performing arts
Ronald Lee Newman
Duke Ellington School of the Arts Alumni Association
Ricky Ramón
Professor, Theater
Howard University
George Shirley
Tenor
University of Michigan
Pamela Simonson
Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts
Jeffery Tribble Jr.
President and CEO
Levine Music
Greg Watkins
Music Director
CAAPA Chorale

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So many thanks for that most inspiring, capacious evening. With PCE’s usual ability to surprise and delight… that symphony was astonishing…

Kate

Your leadership and dramatic shaping of the Symphony last night was truly masterful - and so inspiring. I know I’ll never forget this experience. Thank you, Maestro!

Chris

I loved the intimacy of the ensemble and the aching beauty of the melody repeating and recurring and turning up where I did not expect it . And I found the quality of the sound thrilling.

That was my take on the concert --that and the tears that it brought to my eyes, simply to be there, to be present at the creation of something so beautiful..

Michaele

What a perfect PCE evening, wonderful concert and lovely gathering

Liz

Angel, You are so musical! I've played the 4th twice, it was the first Mahler I heard as a kid, and I'm invariably disappointed that conductors don't let it breathe. U nailed it.

David

Congratulations again to you and your superb ensemble on a wonderful and provocative performance in the Terrace Theater last evening. As always, we learned something from this concert and it was fun, too.

Alec

Everything about it was sheer delight, including the lively and interesting talk at the end…

Catherine

The Black Virtuoso Tradition

The Black Virtuoso Tradition

The Black Virtuoso Tradition

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Special Thanks to the Leadership Council

Thank you to our funders and sponsors:

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