#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 1, 2023
By Ralph Graves
For the month of February, the Classics a Day team once again chose Black History Month as the theme. Composers of color have made significant contributions to classical music throughout history.
And there’s a lot of great music still awaiting discovery. Here are my posts for #ClassicaDay for the first week of #BlackHistoryMonth.
02/01/23 H. Leslie Adams: The Return from Town
Adams has taken an unusual career path. Unlike many contemporary composers, he doesn’t hold a faculty position at a university. Rather, he is a full-time composer, working from his studio in Cleveland, Ohio.
02/02/23 David Baker: Fantasy on Themes from “Masque of the Red Death” Ballet
Baker was primarily a jazz musician, composer, and academician. And he contributed many compositions to the Third Stream, a movement combining classical and jazz, revitalizing both genres.
02/03/23 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 80
Coleridge-Taylor composed this 1912 work for American violinist Maud Powell. The parts, shipped from the UK, were lost and had to be rewritten. While lost at sea, they were not as legend has it, on the Titanic, but on a different vessel.
