The Classics a Day team once again made NAFTA Classics the theme for July. Two of the three countries in North America have significant holidays in the month — Canada Day (July 1), and Independence Day (July 4). As always with this theme, I simply alternated between Canadian, American, and Mexican composers. And the process […]
Florence Price
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American Quintets Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective Debut
There are plenty of quintets by American composers to choose from. But the three presented here by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective hit that sweet spot for me. They’re all first-rate compositions, they’re not over-represented either in recordings or in concert, and they’re all played exceptionally well. The Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective is just that — a […]
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#ClassicsaDay #BlackHistoryMonth Week 2
The Classics a Day team has celebrated Balck composers before. This time around, I tried to avoid duplication with previous posts. It was easy to do. There is a lot of classical music by persons of color, both in the past as well as the present. A lot. Here are my posts for the second […]
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#ClassicsaDay #BlackLivesMatter Week 3
The Classics a Day team unanimously decided to make #BlackLivesMatter the theme for July. Classical music isn’t immune to systemic racism. It’s an art form that, like painting, sculpture, literature, or poetry, is a powerful form of expression for many voices. But some voices are heard more often than others. If you’d like to learn […]
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#ClassicsaDay Revisits #NAFTAclassics – Week 4
The Classics a Day team is made up of Americans and Canadians. The month of July has important national holidays for both countries. And so the theme for July is the music of North America. (Mexico doesn’t have a major holiday in July, but we decided to be inclusive). In my posts for #ClassicsaDay I […]
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#ClassicsaDay #BlackMusicMonth Week 3
Since 1979, June has been African-American Music Appreciation Month. The Classics a Day team decided to adopt it for the June 2019 theme as well. Popular music genres will no doubt be well-represented by others. We’ll be focusing on the composers, conductors, and performing artists of color who have contributed to classical music. For my […]
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Florence Price Symphonies On Par with Dvorak
As pressure mounts for orchestras to diversify their programming, Florance Foster Price has risen in prominence. Price was a composer of color active in the late 1930s and 40s. Her first symphony, completed in 1932 won a competition and was premiered by the Chicago Symphony in 1933. Stylistically, the work owes much to Antonin Dvorak […]
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#ClassicsaDay #NAFTAclassics Week 3
We have an international mix of contributors to the #ClassicsaDay feed. July has significant holidays for two of the three countries in North America. So, at the suggestion of a Canadian contributor, July became #NAFTAclassics, marking Canada Day (July 1) and Independence Day (July 4). Mexico doesn’t have a July holiday, but we decided to […]
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#ClassicsaDay #WeWriteSymphonies Annotated List – Week 1
I’m a regular contributor to the #ClassicsaDay feed on Twitter. At a speech in Poland on 7/6/17, the President said, “The world has never known anything like our community of nations. We write symphonies.” The next day #WeWriteSymphonies appeared on Twitter, citing all the non-Western — and non-white — composers who do indeed write symphonies. […]