My top choice this week is:

CLASSICAL: FAURÉ – COMPLETE MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO – Lucas Debargue – Sony Classical

I was fortunate enough to get an early listen to this album and I’ve been listening to it frequently ever since. Pianist Debargue plays 68 tracks on this 4-album recording and he’s playing it on a piano with 102 keys.

There was a time with pianos had eight octaves, as this piano by Stephen Paulello does. This is a footnote, a curiosity, about this recording. What matters is the music of Gabriel Fauré.

Debargue plays it beautifully – all 4-1/2 hours of it.  I’ve certainly heard a lot of the composer’s work in my life, but this recording introduced me to many works I’d never heard before. Having Debargue as my guide to this music was perfect.

He plays beautifully, thoughtfully and, when necessary, powerfully on this amazing record. There is no doubt I will continue to listen to this album for many years to come.

Here is the rest of New In Music This Week: March 22^nd:

BROADWAY CAST ALBUM: THE GARDENS OF ANUNCIA – Ghostlight Records

Composer Michael John LaChiusa has collaborated with director/choreographer Graciela Daniele for years. But this collaboration was the most personal as The Gardens of Anuncia is the subject matter in this musical that played at Lincoln Center in November of 2023. (It had its world premiere in 2021 at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego.)

Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) leads a cast that includes Eden Espinosa, Andréa Bruns, Mary Testa, Kalyn West and Enrique Acevedo.

It’s hard to fully judge a musical from its cast album, but LaChiusa is one of our most interesting and compelling composers and this cast is undeniably good. I’m a fan of his work and am a fan of this musical. I hope one day to get a chance to see it.

In the meantime, I’ll more than be happy to have this recording to listen to whenever I want.

CLASSICAL: A RETIRADA DA LAGUNA/CONCERTINO FOR VIOLIN AND CHAMBER ORCHESTRA/MUSEU DA INCONFIDÊNCIA / GUERRA-PEIXE– Goiás Philharmonic Orchestra/Neil Thomson – Naxos

I can’t claim to have known composer César Guerra-Peixe prior to this recording of three significant works he composed in the early 1970s. 

A Retirada Da Laguna was inspired by Viscount Taunay’s book of the same name which looked at one incident in the Paraguayan War which found that country battled against an alliance formed by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.  It’s a powerful work from 1971.

The Concertino for Violin and Chamber Orchestra features violinist Abner Landim and dates from 1972. Also from that year is the Museu da Inconfidência which is named after a museum honoring a separatist movement from 1789.

Guerra-Peixe was clearly a political composer, but also a damn fine one. This recording is part of  a series of music from Brazil. 

CLASSICAL: MUSIC FOR STRING QUARTET / Florence Beatrice Price / Leo Sowerby – Avalon String Quartet – Naxos

For those interested in exploring more of Price’s music, this recording of her String Quartet in A Minor is for you. The Avalon String Quartet’s recording makes the fact that this beautiful composition was not performed in Price’s lifetime the glaring omission that it was at the time. It’s a mature and impressive work. The recording ends with Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint.

In between those works if Sowerby’s String Quartet in G Minor. It has never been recorded before and I wasn’t familiar with Sowerby at all.  This over 30-minute work reveals a composer, who, like Price, was part of the Chicago classical music scene in the 1930s and 1940, is another woefully overlooked composer.

CLASSICAL: RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: SCHEHERAZADE / MUSSORGSKY: NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN – Orchestra and Chorus dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia / Antonio Pappano – Warner Classics

If you’re a fan of Night on Bald Mountain this is an album for you. There are two versions of Mussorgsky’s work on this album. The first is performed by the orchestra – the version most commonly performed and recorded. The second, which immediately follows and closes out this recording, is for orchestra and chorus. It was a revision the composer made in 1880 for The Fair at Sorochyntsi.

Hearing this version reminds me of my favorite version of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture which features a full chorus. (I’m in the minority on that one, as I probably will be here.) This recording brings a new way of hearing Night on Bald Mountain and one that I found truly interesting.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: THE BLIND BANNISTER – Timo Andres – Nonesuch Records

Hopefully you caught my interview with Timo Andres earlier this week where he talks about The Blind Bannister, his third piano concerto. The concerto was written for pianist Jonathan Bis and this is the first recording of The Blind Bannister. Also on this recording are Colorful History and Upstate Obscura – both composed by Andres.

Andres is joined by the Metropolis Ensemble lead by Andrew Cyr (founder and artistic director of Metropolis) on this terrific recording.

I strongly urge you to listen to this album and to also check out the video of my interview with Andres.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: I long and seek after – Jessica Meyer – New Focus Recordings

Composer and violist Jessica Meyer’s new album opens with such a compelling soprano (Melissa Wimbish) that it immediately became music I couldn’t stop listening to. This was a performance of Meyer’s Space, in Chains with Meyer accompanying Wimbish.

Space, in Chains sets the tone for the entire album of Meyer’s compositions which are settings of the poetry of multiple women and, in one case, a letter from Anaïs Nin to Henry Miller.

Each and every one of these works is unforgettable. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but the beauty of The Last Rose (performed by soprano Sarah Brailey and cellist Caleb van der Swaagh) is undeniable.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: 1001 – Dustin O’Halloran – Deutsche Grammophon

Composer O’Halloran’s seamless record explores the human mind and the existential threat that AI poses. In other words, how do we as humans live side-by-side with technology.

Joining O’Halloran o this album are Bryan Senti on violin, a eight-voice choir, the Budapest Art Orchestra and electronics by Paul Corley of Sigur Rós.

It’s a perfect album to listen to when you want to tune out the rest of the world – which is, I suppose, precisely the point. If at times it sounds like the score to a film that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise since O’Halloran has scored multiple films and television shows. 

JAZZ: BUT WHO’S GONNA PLAY THE MELODY – Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer – Mack Avenue Records

McBride and Meyer are two of the top bassists working today, so the idea of putting them together is truly an inspired one as this album proves. The cheeky title implies who is the leader. It doesn’t matter with music this good.

This is an inspired album that features 15 tracks and 66 minutes of sublime music. Most of them were written by either McBride or Meyer. The covers include Solar by Miles Davis, Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered and Days of Wine and Roses.

A vinyl version of this album will be released on Record Store Days (April 20^th).

JAZZ: TRIAD – Triad – Ropeadope

This is not your usual trio configuration:  accordion, marimba and trumpet. Which makes this debut album from Michael Ward-Bergeman, Christian Tamburr and Dominick Farinacci so interesting. At moments you can feel like you’re in Europe. At others you’re in South America.

And then singer Shenel Johns joins for I Put a Spell on You and St. James Infirmary Blues and it sounds like you could be on your way to the underworld, were it not for the inclusion of Farinacci’s A Prayer for You in between those two songs. When she returns in the album’s last track to sing Stop This Train (John Mayer/Pino Palladino), you know you’ve been on quite the journey. Somehow you know that through it all, you’ll be fine.

OPERA: PORO, RE DELLE INDIE / HANDEL – Il Groviglio Ensemble / Marco Angioloni – Château de Versailles Spectacles

Though Handel’s Poro re delle Indie is not well-known amongst his works, it was very popular when it first debuted in 1731. The libretto is by Pietro Metastasio. In fact, in 2007 Opera Today wrote, “Let’s face it, Handel’s Poro, Re dell’Indie isn’t exactly a household name in any but the most dedicated baroque opera circles.”

The title translates to Porus, King of India. Poro (Christopher Lowrey) is captured by Alexander the Great (Angioloni). Poro is in love with Queen Cleofide (Lucia Martin Carton) who feigns interest in Alexander only to set up the kind of intrigue and mistaken identity that is often found in operas by Handel.

This beautiful recording makes the case for rediscovery of this neglected work. I’ll admit to not being the biggest fan of Baroque operas, but this recording is well on its way to persuading me to be more open to them.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: March 22^nd.

Enjoy the music!

Enjoy your weekend!

The post New In Music This Week: March 22nd appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Waites first recorded Price’s music in 1987. When she takes to the stage of CAP UCLA’s The Nimoy on January 16th, she will perform work by both women and will be offering the first-ever performances of newly discovered and edited music by Price. The concert is called Momentum: Time and Space.

Momentum indeed. Last September Waites released her fourth album, Reflections in Time which found her performing music by Bonds, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Jeremy Siskind.

Last week I spoke with Waites about her passion for this music, the current embrace of music – particularly Price’s, and about whether or not she considers herself a trailblazer. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview with Waites, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: You were one of the earliest proponents of the music of Florence Price, recording her work, I believe, in 1987. Did you imagine all that time ago that Florence Price would become one of the most performed composers in this decade? 

I really did not. You start out on a project, but you don’t really know how it’s all going to end. I did a cassette recording. A friend of mine, who did the first biography on Price, sent me a copy of the manuscript from the Library of Congress. She said, Althea, this would be a wonderful piece for you to learn. I didn’t know anything about the Price sonata or any of the other music. So I got the manuscript and started working on it. I was in Switzerland at the time and when I got back to the States, I made that a primary project. Then in 1993 I did the first commercial recording of the sonata along with some other short pieces that Price had composed.

Why do you think now is the time that Price has suddenly been embraced by major orchestras around the world and also soloists?

We’ve been talking a lot and experiencing a lot about diversity and inclusion. I’m old enough to remember growing up in the segregated South where music was being performed and it was a part of the cultural landscape. But certainly Black composers, performers were relegated to very limited kinds of opportunities. With the civil rights movement, all of the LGBTQ actions that are taking place now, there is interest in Florence Price’s music. 

In 2021, Classic FM had a list of the ten most important Black composers who changed the course of classical music history. There were only two women on the list: Florence Price and Margaret Bonds. What do you think their greatest contribution to classical music is?

They paved the way for traditional folk music that had been part of the Black experience to be included and to be recognized as a major component of that particular type [of music]. They were not away from doing European classical music or art music or the music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, etc. because they were classically trained. They incorporated all of that into their music. Price used the dances that came out of slavery and out of the music of the plantations in the South. Bonds did the same thing. Because of their classical experience, they also merged that particular form with everything else that they were doing. I think that that was their major contribution.

They paved the way for other women. They opened doors really for women at that time – even in my generation – to get out and play and perform and teach a lot of this music. Both Price and Bonds were teachers and fierce advocates for inclusion at a time when it was hardly popular.

You’re also a teacher. Do you think the act of performance is a lesson in teaching for anybody who gets to hear it? 

I totally agree. You can learn a lot, as I did just from listening to great artists and, of course, listening to it on the radio or television. A lot of my education, besides going to an academic institution, I went to concerts. My mother was a fierce advocate for having me experience all of that music.

We went to concerts in New Orleans, despite the fact that the large halls were not open to us. We heard the Met Opera every Saturday afternoon at 1:00. When I was old enough to read I would get the scores and follow along with whatever was going on. So teaching can happen in many ways, not just in a classroom. A lot of my education happened that way. 

You can’t find a lot of quotes by Margaret Bonds. But I did find one where she is quoted as having said, “Music has to be human and people have to like it. It has to move them spiritually and intellectually.” Do you agree with her and how does her music move you? 

I do agree. The whole idea is that people want to be moved by whatever it is that you do, whether you’re a pianist or if you play anything or if you’re a singer or whatever. If you cannot bring the emotional content to the experience that you have with your instrument, then I’ll say that you’ve fallen short of what your mission is. I think the primary mission is to move people emotionally so that when they walk out of the space, they say, wow, I heard something that really was special. I was really touched by that.

Does the music need to move you in order for you to play it?

Yes, I think so. I’m having that experience now with a couple of the things that I’m doing. There was a piece by Frederic Rzewski who was one of the primary exponents of social justice. He used a lot of those themes in his work. He wrote a piece called Down by the Riverside starting with [she sings] “I’m going to lay down my burden” and so on. Then in the middle of the piece it goes south. He takes a radical departure from the the tune that you’ve heard, which is very peaceful. All of a sudden you’re thrown into another world. That was the way he thought about it. At the end he brings all of that material back to the traditional tune. So, yeah, there must something in it, in any piece, that has to resonate with me. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Do you consider yourself a trailblazer? Somebody who has made it possible for younger generations who come up behind you to explore and make discoveries on their own of music, whether known or unknown?

I don’t want to pin any bouquets on myself. I mean, a lot of people have called me that. I say thank you. I appreciate that. What I believe is that whatever I have done in some small way, I’ll keep doing that. Whatever time I have left on the planet, I’m going to continue to support the younger generation. I don’t know if I would call myself a trailblazer. It’s nice to be thought of in that context, but, for me, it’s basically just doing the work. Doing some good work.

Quite some time ago there was a major discovery in Chicago in an apartment building that was being remodeled or a house that was being remodeled where they found a lot of Florence Price’s music, which helped further people’s awareness of Florence Price. Do you have optimism that maybe another miracle can occur and that we can find a lot more of this lost work somehow, somewhere?

I would think so, because people are really interested in it now. I do have to bring up at this juncture some work that a friend of mine, Michael Cooper [Professor of Music at Southwestern University], is now completing the first biography on Margaret Bonds. It was through him that I got these pieces that I’m going to premiere for The Nimoy concert.

Now he is a real trailblazer because Bonds lived in Los Angeles during the last 6 or 7 years of her life after Langston Hughes passed away. Michael has been doing research on where some of this music was. And I have a feeling that it’s going to happen with Price. He is also editing a lot of the music of Florence Price and he sends me things all the time about what he is working on. I owe him a great debt of gratitude because had it not been for him, I would not have known that these pieces exist.

What do you think the most important thing we as an audience can get from opening ourselves up to music? 

I think what has to happen with audiences is let’s get rid of the fear, if you will. Or the apprehension that you may have in your mind about, well, I’m not going to like this. You don’t know until you try and until you actually have the experience. Audiences have to really, I think, do more. And I think we should do more as artists to make that case to say, here is something new. It’s not going to attack you. I feel that’s part of my mission – to get people in the space. That’s where I am. A lot of the people that I work with are trying to get people out to listen.

How does the music you’ve recorded and the music you are now playing reflect where you are in your life today and the journey you’ve taken to get here?

I’m not getting any younger. I was telling my daughter that I’m never going to be 25 again, and that’s okay. I have to do a lot of things now that reflect where I am. I’ll be 85 at the end of this month. I’m grateful to be able to still go on. My body is changing and I have to do more now to stay in good shape. So I walk and I have a lot of exercises that I do. I don’t sit at the piano for ten hours! I practice, but I do get up and take my breaks and with tea and things like that. The exercises really help because if you’re not doing anything like that, then you really can’t present your best self to an audience.

I would also argue that music is a really great way of staying alive.

Oh goodness, yes. We need it now more than ever. The whole world is in a very agitated state. There’s a lot of horrible stuff that’s going on. Music is, I think, probably one of the most important tools. You can bring people together with that. It’s not that you have to say anything, but you can speak through your music. I think that that’s what Price and Bonds attempted to do.

That’s what you are able to do by performing the music.

I feel very, very grateful now to still be able to do this at this point in my life. Anybody else would be sitting in a rocking chair watching soap operas. But not me. 

To see the full interview with Althea Waites, please go here.

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Our top pick of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: September 22^nd is:

CLASSICAL:  AMAZÔNIA – Camila Provenzale, Philharmonia Zürich, Simone Menzes – Alpha Classics

Floresta Do Amazonas, an 11-movement suite by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Metamorphosis 1 (from Aguas da Amazonia) by Philip Glass tell you right away what the theme is on this incredible album: the Amazon rainforest.  

Of course, any album that has a “cause” is only going to be effective if the music is good. This isn’t just good, this is a great recording. I hadn’t heard anything Menzes had done before, but if this is any indication we’re destined for a lot of great and thoughtful music in the years ahead.

As an added bonus the liner notes include a selection of photographs by Sebastião Salgado. If you don’t know his work, this is a great introduction to his gorgeous photography. 

Here are my other selections for New In Music This Week: September 22^nd:

CLASSICAL: ZODIAC SUITE – Aaron Diehl & The Knights – Mack Avenue Records

Composer Mary Lou Williams composed this 12-movement suite to reflect each of the astrological signs with each movement dedicated to a friend of hers born under that sign. It is perhaps best known as a work for a trio, but Williams also arranged a version for piano and ensemble in 1945.

Pianist Diehl has been performing the work in concert and now has recorded the full work in this first-ever professional recording of Zodiac Suite in this configuration.

Fans of mid 20^th-century American music will definitely want to check this out. You’ll also want to hear if the music composed for your astrological sign in any way mirrors who you might be.

CLASSICAL:  BACHEANDO – Plínio Fernandes – Decca Gold

This beautiful solo guitar album finds Fernandes playing works by Mario Albanese, Sérgio Assad, Johann Sebastian Bach, Paulinho Nogueira and Heitor Villa-Lobos. The mix of Brazilian composers with music by Bach may not sound like it makes sense on paper, but the arrangements make a convincing argument of the logic of this pairing.

Bacheando is a refreshing take on Bach’s music as well. I thoroughly enjoyed Fernandes’s playing and plan to listen to this album many more times.

CLASSICAL: FLORENCE PRICE: SYMPHONY NO. 4 – The Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Deutsche Grammophon

This is a live recording from the Philadelphia Orchestra who have been passionate advocates for Florence Price’s music. This symphony in D minor was composed in 1945 but never received a performance in her lifetime. 

Also on this digital only release is William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony which was composed in 1934 and revised in 1952. There are three movements:  The Bond of Africa; Hope in the Night and Oh, Le’ Me Shine, Shine Like a Morning Star!

This is not the first album of Florence Price’s music recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra and one hopes it won’t be the last.

CLASSICAL: RACHMANINOFF, A REFLECTION – Yekwon Sunwoo – Decca Classics

With so many celebrations of Rachmaninoff’s 150^th this year, I expected this to be a recording of the usual works by the composer. The only commonly performed work on this record is the Prelude in C-Sharp Minor. The rest are much lesser performed works.

These include the 23 Variations on a Theme of Corelli and the 10 Variations on a Theme of Chopin. Yekwon Sunwoo plays them all beautifully and it’s nice to hear music that, for the most part, is less-performed than the rest of Rachmaninoff’s works.

CLASSICAL:  MI PAÍS: SONGS OF ARGENTINA – Federico De Michelis and Steven Blier – NYFOS Records

We are accustomed to hearing art songs from the northern hemisphere, but this album allows us to explore those songs from well below the equator. In this case, a selection of music from Argentina.

Bass-baritone De Michelis is not someone with whom I was very familiar. His singing on this album will make me want to seek out more of his work. He’s joined by pianist Biler (who is also Artistic Director of New York Festival of Song) and at times Shinjoo Cho on bandoneon, Pablo Lanouguere on double bass; Sami Merdinian on violin and tenor César Andrés Parreño.

Amongst the composers whose work is performed on this album are Carlos López Buchardo; Carlos Gardel; Carlos Guastavino, and lest you think every composer Is named Carlos, there are also works by Mariano Mores; Astor Piazzolla; Ariel Ramírez and Héctor Stamponi.

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: A PRAYER TO THE DYNAMO Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Daníel Bjarnason – Deutsche Grammophon

You can argue that this is mostly made of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s music written for films (The Theory of Everything/Sicario), but this is such a beautiful recording that if you didn’t know those details, it wouldn’t even occur to you these were film scores.

In the hands Bjarnason and the ISO, this is more than a soundtrack compilation or collection. Jóhannson was one of the most interesting composers of his time. Sadly he passed away in 2018 at the age of 48.

The last work on the album, A Prayer to the Dynamo, is not from a film score. This marks the first-ever recording of that 30-minute suite.

JAZZ:  DYNAMIC MAXIMUM TENSION – Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society – Nonesuch Records

This incredible album was actually released on September 8^th, but only recently was I introduced to it. This nearly two-hour work is massively ambitious and that ambition pays off from the opening moments of Dymaxion and never lets up until Mae West: Advice closes out the album.

Argue has incredible ability to write for a big band and his ensemble returns the favor with incredible playing. The album takes its name from the three words R. Buckminster Fuller used to create “dymaxion” a concept related to improving daily life.

Argue collaborated with Cécile McLorin Salvant on the song cycle Ogresse which I hope to one day see and hear. (You can hear here on the last track of the album). In the meantime, Dynamic Maximum Tension is an album I’ve already listened to several times and I am certain it will be at the top of critics lists at the end of the year. 

JAZZ:  WITNESS TO HISTORY – Eddie Henderson – Smoke Sessions Records

At 82 years young, trumpeter Henderson is still making great music. Witness to History, his latest album, comes half a century after Realization, his 1973 album that marked his first recording as a leader.

Joining him for the 8 tracks on this wonderful album are pianist George Cables, bassist Gerald Cannon, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison and drummer Lenny White. Mike Clark, also a drummer, joins for the opening track Scorpio Rising, which was composed by Henderson.

Eddie Henderson how not just been a witness to history, but part of it. This album continues him on that path.

MUSICALS: OKLAHOMA! COMPLETE ORIGINAL SCORE – Sinfonia of London – Chandos Records

Nathaniel Hackmann (currently appearing as Biff in Back to the Future: The Musical) sings Curly; Sierra Boggess sings Laurey; Rodney Earl Clarke (multiple roles in productions of Porgy and Bess) sings Jud Fry; Jamie Parker (now appearing in Next to Normal at Donmar Warehouse) sings Will Parker and Louise Dearman (first actress to play Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked) sings Ado Annie in this studio recording of the full score from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musical.

John Wilson conducts the Sinfonia of London Orchestra in this wonderful recording that offers fans of this musical nearly 100 minutes of music. This recording of Oklahoma! is much more than just OK.

OPERA: LA DIVINA: MARIA CALLAS IN ALL HER ROLES – Maria Callas – Warner Classics   

Is it too early to suggest holiday gifts? Because this embarrassment of riches is perfect for the Maria Callas fan in your life. This is a 131-CD box set that offers studio recordings, live recordings and staged performances. All in this has at least one recording of each of the 74 opera roles she performed over the course of her career.

This includes two studio recordings each of Bellini’s Norma; Donizetti’s Lucia Di Lammermoor; Ponchielli’s La Gioconda and Puccini’s Tosca. But don’t fret, there are live performances of those and many more.

The reason for this extraordinary collection is the 100^th anniversary of Callas’ birth on December 2, 1923. One wonders what the former Maria Anna Sophia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos would think of all this attention. (Of course she’d love it!)

MUSICAL/OPERA (adjacent): FRANK’S WILD YEARS / RAIN DOGS / SWORDFISHTROMBONES – Tom Waits – Island/UMe

In 1990 Tom Waits collaborated with director Robert Wilson on a play/musical/opera entitled The Black Rider. I saw it at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles in 2006. So forgive me for indulging my passion for Tom Waits by including the first three of five re-issues of albums by Waits in this week’s list.

Waits is one of our most fascinating and talented artists and these three albums serve as an excellent example of what makes him so incredible. These three titles were released on streaming and CD on September 1st, but I’m including them this week timed to the release of the new vinyl versions of each record.

Waits and his collaborator Kathleen Brennan oversaw the remastering of these releases. Two more albums, Bone Machine and The Black Rider will be released on vinyl on October 6th. Great news for Tom Waits fans! Obviously I’m one of them!

That’s the full list of New In Music This Week: September 22nd.

Enjoy the music! Enjoy your weekend!

Main Photo: Part of the album cover of Swordfishtrombones by Tom Waits

The post New In Music This Week: September 22nd appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Our top choice this week is:

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: A LEFT COAST – Tyler Duncan and Erika Switzer  (Bridge Records)

What do you know about classical music from British Columbia? Exactly as much as I do. Which is why this album featuring baritone Duncan and pianist Switzer is such a wonderful discovery.

The music they perform comes from those they met at the School of Music at the University of British Columbia. This includes Stephen Chatman, Jean Coulthard, Iman Habibi, Melissa Hui, Jocelyn Morlock, Jeffrey Ryan and Leslie Uyeda.

The last four tracks truly stand out to me. They are from Ryan’s Everything Already Lost. With titles like Bill Evans: Alone, Autumn Again, Night Music and Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17 meant I skipped ahead to her them first. And I was richly rewarded with thoughtful works beautifully performed. Then I went back and listened to the entire 64 minutes and realized there are treasures all the way through.

Here are the rest of what’s New In Music This Week: June 23^rd that I particularly liked:

CLASSICAL: FLORENCE PRICE – Chineke! Orchestra – (Decca Classics)

In 2015 Chi-chi Nwanoku founded the Chineke! Orchestra. The mission was the assemble an orchestra comprised of Black and ethnically diverse musicians from the UK and Europe. 

In celebration of the 70^th anniversary of composer Florence Price’s death, the orchestra has released a recording filled with two more familiar works with a final composition that was only rediscovered in 2009. 

The album opens with Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with Jeneba Kanneh-Mason on piano and conducted by Leslie Suganandarajah. That is followed by Price’s Symphony No. 1 in E Minor which is conducted by Roderick Cox. The discovery is His Resignation and Faith from Prce’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America.

On September 30^th the Chineke! Orchestra will release an album of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.

CLASSICAL: MOZART: SONATAS FOR PIANO & VIOLIN – Renaud Capuçon & Kit Armstrong (Deutsche Grammophon)

If you love Mozart, the piano and the violin, you’ll love this collection of performances of his sonatas for the two instruments. With 92 tracks lasting 4 hours and 15 minutes, this is nirvana for those who love this work. There are 16 sonatas on this recording available digitally or in a 4-CD set. 

Pianist Armstrong has been in the public eye for 20 years. Capuçon is a passionate advocate of chamber music and has performed with the likes of Martha Argerich, Daniel Trifonov and Yuja Wang.

In Los Angeles our classical music station, KUSC,  plays Mozart in the Morning. This fine collection will get you through half your day!

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: SHATTER – Verona Quartet  (Bright Shiny Things)

Cellist Jonathan Dormand, violinists Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro and violist Abigail Rojansky make up this fine quartet. Shatter is their second album and it offers three incredible compositions by contemporary American composers.

The album opens with the first-ever recording of Reena Esmail’s String Quartet (Ragamala). Joining the quartet for this work is Hundustani vocalist Saili Oak. Julia Adolphe’s Star-Crossed Signals follows and the album concludes with Michael Gilbertson’s Quartet.

Verona Quartet commissions Gilbertson’s work which was a 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist.

JAZZ:  STANDARDS – Noah Haidu (Sunnyside Records)

Pianist Keith Jarrett collaborated with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock for the 1983 album Standards, Vol. 1. At the same sessions for that album enough music was recorded to release Changes in 1984 and Standards, Vol. 2 in 1985.

Pianist Haidu celebrates the 40^th anniversary of that first album with his own standards album. Wisely he’s not re-recording the tracks from those albums, though the selections are part of Jarrett/Peacock/DeJohnette repertoire. He has his own combination of songs that are performed with drummer Lewis Nash, bassists Peter Washington and Buster Williams. Saxophonist Steve Wilson is a guest on the album as well.

The album concludes with the originals Last Dance I and Last Dance II. Don’t expect Donna Summer. This is a beautiful conclusion to this beautiful album.

JAZZ: THE ANCESTRAL CALL – José Soto

This fascinating album from pianist/composer Soto combines a jazz ensemble with a string quartet to explore Costa Rica’s Bribri community, its survival of colonization and its resilience in still being around.

Amongst the artists joining Soto on this album are Milena Cassado, George Garzone and Francisco Mela. 

You think you know what to expect with a strong quartet and with a jazz ensemble. But by throwing them together and including improvisation in the music, Soto has come up with an album that deserves multiple listenings.

JAZZ: GO WEST!: THE CONTEMPORARY RECORDS ALBUMS – Sonny Rollins (Craft Recordings)

Saxophonist Sonny Rollins was only 26 when he recorded Way Out West. The album found him recording six tracks with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne. 

One year later he released Sonny Rollins and The Contemporary Leaders which featured 8 tracks recorded with Hampton Hawes on piano, Manne on drums, Leroy Vinnegar on bass and Barney Wessel on guitar. 

This three LP box set (plus digital and CD release) combines both these albums along with a third album of six alternate takes from both recording sessions.

This is early Rollins and such great music to listen to. If I had the vinyl set it would be played repeatedly!

MUSICALS: OPERATION MINCEMEAT – Original Cast Recording  (Sony Masterworks Broadway)

What began as a show at a fringe festival four years ago has turned into the smash hit musical comedy on the West End in London right now. The musical takes place in 1943 and centers on the role a stolen corpse plays in turning the tide during World War II.

It sounds like a Monty Python skit, but this really took place in April of 1943. The British fooled Hitler’s army into believing that the Allies would be invading Greece and Sardinia. The end result was the liberation of Sicily.

The team of David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts are responsible for the Book, Music and Lyrics. Starring in the musical are Geri Allan, Christian Andrews, Seán Carey, David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Hodgson, Jak Malone, Roberts and Holly Sumpton.

Listening to this album made me want to book a trip to London to see this show.

That’s all I have for you of New In Music This Week: June 23rd.

Enjoy the music and enjoy the weekend.

Main Photo: Art from Chineke! Orchestra’s Florence Price album

The post New In Music This Week: June 23rd appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

My top choice:

JAZZ:  COLTRANE’S SOUND – John Coltrane (Rhino High Fidelity)

Rhino launches a new vinyl series today with the release of this John Coltrane album from 1964. The six tracks on this record were recorded during the same sessions for My Favorite Things. Those tracks are The Night Has a Thousand Eyes; Central Park West; Liberia; Body and Soul; Equinox and Satellite.

Joining Coltrane for this record were Steve Davis on bass, Elvin Jones on drums and McCoy Tyner on piano.

I attended a listening party for this record earlier this week and can tell you that it sounds like you are in the recording studio with these musicians. There were only 5,000 copies pressed for this release and they are only available through Rhino’s website.

What else is New In Music This Week: May 19^th? Here’s my list:

BROADWAY: KIMBERLY AKIMBO OBCR (Ghostlight Records)

This highly acclaimed Broadway musical from Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire received eight nominations for Tony Awards including Best Musical, Leading Actress in a Musical (Victoria Clark), Featured Actress (Bonnie Milligan), Featured Actor (Justin Cooley) and nominations for Best Book for Lindsay-Abaire and Best Score for Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire.

The musical tells the story of Kim (Clark) who is a teenager from New Jersey. She does her best to fit in with the other kids at school, but the fact that she looks 72 doesn’t make things easy for her. That’s just the beginning of challenges she faces.

Clark won a Tony Award for her performance in The Light in the Piazza. Lindsay-Abaire won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Rabbit Hole. Tesori won the Tony Award for Fun Home and also collaborated with Lindsay-Abaire on Shrek: The Musical. (My favorite show of hers is Caroline, Or Change).

CABARET: THE JESUS YEAR: a letter from my dad – Matthew Scott (PS Classics)

Broadway star Scott lost his father at a young age. When the younger Scott was 13, his family found a series of letters his father had written to his four sons. They essentially served as life lessons his father had written because he was certain he wouldn’t live a long life. This show’s title, The Jesus Year, comes from the belief that a sense of rebirth that happens in your 33^rd year.

In the show Scott performs songs by Harry Chapin, William Finn, Ben Folds, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Yusef/Cat Stevens and an incredibly moving version of Children Will Listen by Stephen Sondheim.

Scott will perform the show at 54 Below on May 23^rd.

CLASSICAL: MAX BRUCH & FLORENCE PRICE VIOLIN CONCERTOS – Randall Goosby, Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Decca Classics)

Fast-rising violinist Randall Goosby performs Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor; Florence B. Price’sAdoration and her Violin Concerto No. 1 in D and Violin Concerto No. 2 on this, his second album.

Goosby has gotten a lot of attention in his brief career and this album is certain to widen the appreciation for his playing. 

Nézet-Séguin, who also leads the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, is a deeply passionate conductor. I saw him lead the Philadelphia Orchestra in the marathon performance of all four of Rachmaninoff’s concerti plus Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Yuja Wang and was seriously impressed with his conducting and the playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Their recording of Price’s Symphonies No. 1 & 3 won the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance in 2022.

CLASSICAL: THE RITE OF SPRING – Spectre d’un songe – Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe (Pyroclastic Records)

Pianists Courvoisier and Smythe perform the two-piano version by Stravinsky of his The Rite of Spring. Anyone who knows this work – either in the symphonic version or in the two-piano version – knows this is a massively complicated and exhilarating composition. Courvoisier and Smythe perform it as if it was effortless for them (it certainly wasn’t).

Also on the recording is another track named The Rite of Spring which is an improvisatory exploration of Stravinsky’s landmark work composed by Smythe. It makes for a fascinating conclusion to this terrific record.

JAZZ: LIVE AT SMALLS JAZZ CLUB – George Coleman (Cellar Music Group)

Here’s a pairing of two legends in jazz. The first is saxophonist George Coleman who was a member of Miles Davis’ Second Quintet. He also recorded five albums as a member of the Chet Baker Quintet and six albums with Max Roach. 

The second legend is Smalls Jazz Club in New York City. Not the oldest of clubs in New York, but a significant one that first opened in 1994. They closed for 3-1/2 years in 2003 before reopening the first quarter of 2006. It’s small (giving the club it’s name) with room for only 60 people.

Coleman was 87 when this album was recorded last year with drummer Joe Farnsworth, bassist Peter Washington and pianist Spike Wilner (who also happens to own Smalls Jazz Club.)

There are eight tracks on this album including Four by Miles Davis, the standards At Last, My Funny Valentineand Nearness of You; Jobim’s Meditation and Kander and Ebb’s New York, New York.

This is a terrific record. Don’t miss it.

JAZZ: BIRD IN LA – Charlie Parker  (VERVE/UMe)

28  live recordings from 1945, 1946, 1948 and 1952 by Parker in Los Angeles comprise this box set available as either 4 LPs, 2 CDs or streaming. Amongst the musicians joining Parker in these performances are Chet Baker, Ray Brown, Benny Carter, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Slim Gaillard, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Frank Morgan and Buddy Rich.

The songs include Billie’s Bounce, Dizzy Atmosphere, How Hight the Moon, Night in Tunisia, Ornithology, Out of Nowhere and Salt Peanuts. There are fragments of other songs included. This is fascinating series of recordings sure to please any fan of Parker’s.

JAZZ: LEAN IN – Gretchen Parlato and Lionel Loueke (Edition Records)

Vocalist/songwriter Parlato and guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Loueke team up for this album of 12 songs – most of them composed by Loueke and Parlato. There are a couple of covers and perhaps the most surprising is Walking After You which was written by Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters. The song appeared on their 1997 album The Colour and the Shape.

These beautiful songs are sung in English, Portuguese and Fon (the indigenous language of Benin.)

Eight of the songs find just Parlato and Loueke together. Joining them for the other four tracks on this recording are drummer Mark Guiliana and bassist Burniss Travis. Marley Guiliana, Parlato and Guiliana’s son, appears on one track. 

JAZZ: WEST SIDE STORY – André Previn and His Pals Shelly Manne & Red Mitchell (Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds)

Though Previn is best known as a composer, he was also a versatile jazz pianist. He’s joined by drummer Manne and bassist Mitchell for eight songs from the Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim musical. 

They perform Something’s Coming, Jet Song, Tonight, I Feel Pretty, Gee Officer Krupke!, Cool, Maria and America. This album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance Solo or Small Group at the 3^rdannual Grammy Awards. (Trivia: both the 3^rd and 4^th annual Grammy Awards were not televised. They held private dinner ceremonies instead)

This re-release marks the first time this album has been released as an LP in over 30 years. (There is also a hi-res digital release).

Let us know what you’re listening to by leaving a comment!

That’s my list of the best of what’s New In Music This Week: May 19th. Have a terrific weekend and enjoy the music!

The post New in Music This Week: May 19th appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Rock My Soul Festival, curated by Julia Bullock, has more exciting programming for its second full weekend. On Friday the orchestra will play works by contemporary composers Valerie Coleman and Courtney Bryan along with the Symphony No. 3 by Florence Price. On Saturday Rhiannon Giddens, whose opera Omar has its final performance at LA Opera on Sunday, will perform with the LA Phil and the Resistance Revival Chorus. Leading both shows from the podium will be Jeri Lynne Johnson.

Johnson most recently conducted the world premiere performances of This Little Light of Mine at Santa Fe Opera. She is also the founder and Artistic Director of Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra. In 2015 she founded DEI Arts Consulting “for cultural institutions seeking to create a culture of belonging.”

When you click on the about tab on her website, the page says “Black female conductor,” a title which is as unique as you think it is.

We spoke a few weeks ago while she was in New Mexico for This Little Light of Mine. We spoke about working with other women, the Rock My Soul Festival, opportunities she’d like to have and more. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

You’ve stated that it was a concert when you were seven years old that instilled in you this passion to be involved with music. Do you remember what was on that program and was there anything specific about that day?

I don’t remember the exact program. I just remember it was Beethoven. It was probably one of the odd numbered symphonies. It was the Minnesota Orchestra when Neville Marriner was the music director. As a young musician I was in love with music and as a pianist I realized I don’t see a piano on stage. I just figured out that what I have to do is what that man with the stick is doing. If I want to make that music I have to be a conductor.

They could have played a Beethoven piano concerto. Then what would you have done? 

You know that is a very interesting question. That has never occurred to me. I always loved piano, but I always wanted to be a conductor. I knew that I made the right choice because I never get nervous as the conductor. As a pianist you get so nervous in your hands and everything. I just never get nervous as a conductor. I always feel like I can trust the musicians, God forbid, if anything goes wrong.

What was your first reaction when you heard about the Rock My Soul Festival and what makes this festival unique? 

I think what makes this festival unique is the wide range of talents that people are going to see on the stage. Nowadays as artists it’s not unusual for us to have a variety of genres and styles that we’re fluent in. That used to be very frowned upon. In an earlier era you only did classical music. If you were to do anything else you didn’t tell anybody about it for fear that you wouldn’t be taken seriously as a classical musician. I think nowadays there is a willingness to recognize excellence across a variety of genres and styles.

We’re also doing, of course, compositions by women whose voices are typically underrepresented in music; folk living and who have passed on. I think the thing that connects these composers across time is their willingness to engage in the cultural issues of their day as composers.

For Courtney Bryant, her piece was about Black Lives Matter, especially after the murder of George Floyd. Florence Price and Margaret Bonds’s work was written in the era of the Harlem Renaissance. So there was a lot of connection around what it meant to be African-American, what it meant to be Black, what it meant to be Negro in America, as they called it. I wanted to engage with who they were as people and use their music to do so.

Julia Bullock told me she was really inspired by that relationship between Florence Price and Margaret Bonds and how she feels the world doesn’t allow for that much anymore because people seem to feel the need to be more competitive with one another. Has it really gotten to that point? 

If that is the case I have not experienced it. This is my first time working with Julia who is a lovely person. I work with a number of African-American women. For me, the experience has always been one of mutual respect and gratitude and recognition.

If we are all here at this place together, it is because we all have sacrificed a great deal to be there. We have all earned our place here. For me it has been nothing but mutual respect and collegiality and a willingness to also hold the door open for other people of talent that maybe we haven’t heard of. That we can connect through and find out about it without putting it a negative spin on it. The more that Black women in classical music are able to work with each other and collaborate, like on this festival, you begin to build that professional trust and that network so that you see more of us out there performing more regularly.

In a video that you did for Careers for Girls you mentioned that it was your job to express emotion from the podium so that you can get the emotion out of the orchestra. What emotional connection do you feel to the work of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds that you then plan to translate to the orchestra?

The connection for me, if I can be raw here for a moment and vulnerable and transparent, which I know is like a no-no for conductors, but it is the inherent understanding of genius, stifled genius, unrecognized genius, not given the support and the nourishment that it deserves and having to find its own way. I understand that completely.

I can’t tell you as a young conductor how many times I was denied opportunity or just not even paid attention to because of who I am. So I look at these works and women with enormous talent and such incredible gifts who, had they had the ability to work with someone like a Nadia Boulanger as Aaron Copland did, what more would we have seen from them? What we have is incredible and so interesting, unbelievably rich, complicated, complex and soulful. It brings tears to my eyes to see the level of excellence that their works are now commanding and the attention they’re getting.

You were talking about genius stifled and denied opportunities. It’s not an easy path being a woman who conducts classical music. I’m sure it’s even tougher being a Black woman who conducts classical music. How much more complicated does that equation become when you are a person of color?

The way that race and gender intersect in my career has been very interesting. Not everything that I’ve dealt with has been related to that. Conducting is hard, as you know. For young conductors, it’s just a difficult time. [Composer] Jennifer Higdon and I were talking and I was lamenting when I was younger, like, oh, this is never going to work. I should just give up and become a buyer for Neiman Marcus or something.

She told me this is a war of attrition. She said whoever lasts the longest lives. She talked about her experience as a composer, as a woman. So I have that tape loop in my head – this is a war of attrition.

I think the timing was just right now for me to had been working for this amount of time, to be holding my breath, to be in a position to be able to take advantage of when the L.A. Phil calls and when the Chicago Symphony calls and when Santa Fe Opera calls. The only thing keeping me from these positions before George Floyd was being a Black woman.

Now because I’m a Black woman people are now beginning to pay attention to me. The work has always been there. The study, the commitment to excellence of artistry, has always been there. The only thing has changed is people’s perceptions of where excellence resides as an artist and where it can reside and who can embody that on the podium. 

Is true systemic change going to happen without the same changes that we see on the stage taking place in the executive offices? 

You’re absolutely right that it has to be. There’s always a power dynamic in any of these relationships of who hires whom and who makes those decisions. We always tell our clients that that representation is not enough. It has to be true empowerment. Until there’s a very diverse setting at the table of who gets to make these decisions it’s always going to be a struggle.

I think there’s a lot of fragility around will donors accept this? Will they like it? Change is hard for anyone and you have to be prepared to lose some people along the way. Some people just aren’t going to want to change and that’s okay. But in order to do the work authentically, you have to be prepared to lose a little something in order to gain something on the other side. 

And how many Beethoven festivals does any one organization need to do every few seasons?

I’m going to put it out there in the universe. I really want to be the first Black woman to have a set of Beethoven’s nine symphonies recorded. It was kind of my dream as a young conductor so I’m holding fast to that.

I think since you’re making your Santa Fe Opera debut, you should also put on your list conducting the Ring Cycle. 

That is on my to-do list. I studied it extensively. I think of Wagner, as a person, as a really awful human being. But his music is just stunningly gorgeous.

Florence Price, in a letter to composer/conductor Serge Koussevitzky, then music director of the Boston Symphony, said, “Unfortunately the work of a woman composer is preconceived by many to be light, froth, lacking in depth, logic and virility. Add to that my race – I have colored blood in my veins – and you will understand some of the difficulties that confront one in such a position.” If you had a chance to update Florence Price about the world she so wanted to be a part of, what would you say?

I would give her the same advice that Jennifer Higdon told me: that it is a war of attrition. We fight these battles on hearts and minds and that art is a mighty warrior. And that people see you. People appreciate you and people understand you. The artists who understand your work, who understand your struggle, will find you. She’s having her moment and hopefully this moment lasts beyond the political interest of the moment and into real recognition of her as an artist and placing her and Margaret Bonds and others in relationship to their colleagues. 

Main Photo: Jeri Lynne Johnson (Courtesy LA Philharmonic)

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Pianist Michelle Cann didn’t necessarily know what she was going to find when she was approached in the spring of 2016 about playing Florence Price’s music. What she discovered, beyond a composition that excited her, was a composer who felt like a kindred spirit.

This weekend Cann is going to play several of Price’s works with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The concerts are part of the Rock My Soul Festival.

Saturday and Sunday’s performances will celebrate the relationship between Price and another Black female composer of the era, Margaret Bonds.

Much of the music being performed is not part of the standard repertoire – even of works by these two women. Cann will be giving the world premiere performances of A Piece for Solo Piano and Orchestra after Florence Price’s “Fantasie négre No. 1.”

Last week I spoke with Cann about Price, other forgotten Black women composers and how Price has become her “soul sister.” What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

Last October Classic FM published a list of the ten Black composers who changed the course of classical music history. Florence Price and Margaret Bonds were the only two women on that list. Given the discoveries that were made of their work, what are your thoughts or what is your awareness about other Black women who might have composed music whose works have remained relatively undiscovered or worse, lost forever?

That’s a really great question. I would say that it should encourage artists and musicians and scholars to ask those questions. If these two people, Florence Price and Margaret Bonds, could have had all these roadblocks, had all these different struggles to be appreciated, there has to be more.

I came across a number of composers that were either from or spent time in Chicago. That’s why their names came up. I was reading about the connections of Black artists, from musicians to poets to writers. There was a renaissance there in Chicago of these artists.

Betty Jackson King was a name that I came across that has this beautiful set of pieces, Four Seasonal Sketches. Another name I came across, Irene Britton Smith, was African-American and she also had some Native American blood in her. She knew Florence Price and was a huge fan, of course.  She wrote her a letter and Price responded. She kept this letter her whole life because it was such a big deal to her. 

This past year I came across the name Helen Hagan. She was the first Black woman to ever go to Yale [School of Music] and graduate from Yale. She went on to write this really great piano concerto, except that all we can find is the first movement. We can’t even find the rest. The one thing I will say that I found to be consistent across the board, from Florence Price to Helen Hagan, is all of them had the same kind of issue of not being fully appreciated during their time, especially when it came to publishing. More than half of their music is lost.

More than six years you got the call from The Dream Unfinished about Florence Price and her music. When you got to really sit down and look at the score for the Piano Concerto in One Movement, what stood out to you about her style of composing? 

I think what was really amazing for me, and still is, was that I got a very strong sense and connection to American Black music and culture. Throughout every section of the concerto, since it’s one movement, there were constant folk melodies. The second solo section is like a spiritual, and the last movement is, which I found out later, was the Juba* dance. It just reminded me of ragtime from that first reading. There was this complete sense that she loved and really understood and connected with all these different Black American music musical styles.

The other thing I love about her and the uniqueness of her as a composer was that she also really did bring in her training – the European style of composing. The way she structured the concerto that it fit into a certain structure that you would expect in a piano concerto from other well-known European composers. She clearly loved the Romantic Era because even the beginning of the concerto was very rhapsodic. You could imagine Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, any big romantic composer writing in a certain way that she did in this concerto. 

You’ve said in previous interviews about her music that you can hear folksongs, Saint-Saëns and now you mention these other composers. Folk songs have been a huge inspiration for classical composers for a long time. Where does her voice stand out above those references and those influences that you cited? 

Just like any composer there is obviously going to be this connection to what you grew up hearing. What you were taught from a young age, even all the way through college. All of these things are influencing your style of writing, whether you like it or not. She grew up in the South. She knew these dances. She grew up religious and in the church; she knew spirituals very well. All of these things were the backdrop of her life.

Meanwhile she was classically trained. She was a pianist. She played all of the standard literature and studied composition. So you see that side of her life. I find it very interesting when I see somebody who can literally just take every aspect of their life and the influences of their life and somehow make that into their own unique musical style. That to me is what stands out.

You’re going to be giving the world premiere of A Piece for Solo Piano and Orchestra after Florence Price’s Fantasie négre No. 1. Price was very much inspired by the spiritual Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass. How does this new work by Michael-Thomas Foumai honor Price’s work and the spiritual that inspired her?

He doesn’t really change the music. What I appreciate is that Michael in no way set out to change her vision.

Generally speaking she did a lot of original things. In this particular Fantasie she takes a well-known spiritual. She clearly knew this and she knew it as a spiritual. It’s an amazing set of variations on this spiritual theme and brings it to life as one of her most significant piano works. The Fantasie is the longest and the most developed.

Now Michael is just continuing in that kind of progression, taking something that existed before Florence Price and that existed within Florence Price’s vision for a piano. He’s expanding that even more to be realized now by the orchestra. Which is exciting because, of course, the orchestra is going to be able to afford even more colors and more variety to what Florence Price was able to put on the piano with these variations.

How will performing this newly expanded work be different for you as a pianist?

The only thing that I find tricky is not playing. That’s the part I’ve had a hard time with because I’ve played it so much as a piano solo. I play everything and he gave parts to the orchestra. So even though he doesn’t change the music, he slightly changes when I play. It’ll be very interesting. I’m very excited. But I’m also so curious about how this is all going to feel when we put it together in rehearsal. 

Renowned opera and gospel singer Marian Anderson, who sang Florence Price’s music, said, “It is my honest belief that to contribute to the betterment of something, one can do it best in the medium through which one expresses oneself most easily.” How does playing Florence Price’s music allow you to express yourself most easily? 

From the very first introduction to her music with the piano concerto I just fell in love with her writing style. I felt that it fit me. 

I lived in a small town in Florida. I grew up in the church. I played in the church, sang in the church and knew all these spirituals. At the same time I had friends that were not classical musicians. So part of my life very much involved popular music. My dad is a music teacher and I played the steel drums and I played Caribbean and Latin music. Then I would go to my piano lesson to work on Beethoven and then go do a Mozart concerto for a competition. Then the next day go play calypso music with the steel drum band. So I literally grew up participating in music in all its forms.

I really love so many different styles, but I always felt like they had to be separate because that’s what it was.

We spent too long putting music into different boxes and saying, this music is for you. None other than African-Americans, more than anybody else, still to this day are pigeonholed into a certain type of music being, quote unquote, our music. I had to live feeling like I had to separate the sides of me instead of just embracing it all because it’s all really great. Music is something for us all to share, no matter what it is.

All that to say that Florence Price was an inspiration to me because she wasn’t afraid to do that. She would not let you put her in a box. She did not just write music of Black American people. She also didn’t just sit there and pander to the Romantic era and make everything just sound like Romantic era music that will sell. She wasn’t writing music based on what she thought would sell. She wrote what was part of her and inside of her. Her music is her soul.

I can’t find any other composer that spoke to me in such a very real and visceral way than Florence Price. Of all composers that I’ve come across, she’s like my soul sister, as some people would say. I feel that way when it comes to her and her music.

*A juba dance is an African style of dance that features slapping, stomping and patting arms, legs and other parts of one’s body. It is also referred to as “hambone.”

Main Photo: Michelle Cann (Courtesy Curtis Institute of Music)

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This year is going out with a bang for soprano Julia Bullock. She’s curated the Rock Your Soul Festival with the Los Angeles Philharmonic that starts in earnest on November 5th and runs through November 22nd. She has her first solo recording coming out from Nonesuch Records. It’s called Walking in the Dark. Finally she and pianist/conductor husband Christian Reif are expecting their first child any day now.

Rock Your Soul Festival was originally conceived by the LA Phil as a celebration of the work and friendship of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds. The title harkens back to a spiritual (Rock My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham) and a book by noted author and activist Bell Hooks (Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem).

Amongst the artists Bullock has assembled for the festival are soprano Michelle Bradley, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, pianist Michelle Cann (look for our interview with her later this week), singer/composer Rhiannon Giddens, conductor Jeri Lynn Johnson, singer/songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello and mezzo-soprano Jasmine White.

Walking in the Dark finds Bullock performing works by John Adams, Samuel Barber, Oscar Brown Jr., Connie Converse and Sandy Denny. It’s a beautiful record that is set for release on December 9th. Reif plays piano on the recording and leads the Philharmonia Orchestra of London as well.

Bullock’s pregnancy precludes her from performing in Rock Your Soul Festival, but it did allow for other opportunities which she described in our conversation recently. What follows are excerpts from that conversation which have been edited for length and for clarity.

I want to start by asking you about something you told Zachary Wolff in the New York Times in 2019. It was advice your mother gave you: “Make sure that your work is making a difference for the betterment of the world.” You seem to have taken up that challenge and made it your mission. How do you think that has made your career different than others and, by extension, more fulfilling for you? 

Well, I don’t know if it’s made it so much different from other people’s. I think every artist has a call in one way or another to have a mission or have their their passion realized. I don’t have a casual relationship with music. In fact, my desire to sing and also share music is because I know the impact that it’s had on my life and also how it’s enriched my life and helps me feel more interconnected and engaged.

I guess I’m always looking for ways to deepen that exploration and enjoy it in the process. I find that most of the artists whose work I really love also have this sort of mission. They’re very much conscious of the world that was going on around them and trying to make sense of it or call out hypocrisies. I’m not sure if I feel it’s so different than what other artists are doing. I guess I’ve just given myself permission to expand that in as many directions as I can imagine.

I would assume that in doing that, when someone like Peter Sellars says “Her path is going to be our path,” that’s got to be both hugely flattering and also a bit of a mantle to take on on a certain level.

I truthfully don’t like to be positioned in any capacity. I appreciate that Peter feels that the way that I work, the reflections that I have, and just the fact that I’m really dedicated to my craft and my own development and learning, is something that he wants to celebrate. I guess I celebrate that, too. That would be part of why, in the performing arts in particular, I don’t take that pressure on because that’s just a projection of something. The work that I do is not trying to live into some projection of Julia. 

In the liner notes for Walking in the Dark you conclude your statements in the liner notes with “If our intentions are translated well enough and are clearly in focus, it may lead to some moments of illumination.” What has been the process of making your intentions perfectly clear with the Rock Your Soul Festival?

It was their idea, not the title or anything like that, but just the proposal to curate a program that was focusing on the relationship between Margaret Bonds and Florence Price. Other than their vocal music and really just their songs, I was not too familiar with a lot of their repertoire – the breadth of their repertoire. It was an opportunity for me to again delve into some research and take six, seven months to consider the work of composers that I had not had the time or had this opportunity to look at.

I was reading about their personal lives and also this relationship of mutual support. They had this teacher (Price)/ student (Bonds) relationship. When there were really troubling times for Florence Price in her personal life she went and lived with Margaret Bonds for a period of time. That really communicated this beautiful thing. It wasn’t just about their artistic output. It was also about nurturing and respecting each other as human beings and fully supporting each other that way. That was something I really wanted to celebrate and acknowledge besides just sharing their repertoire.

Every single artist that was invited into the festival there is this feeling of mutual support. Every single composer that I know, that I work with personally and also the composers that I either read their letters or biographies, they openly admit how influenced they are by the people who are around them. And they seek out guidance and advice. They are influenced by what’s going on socially, politically.

I think we can learn a lot from what Florence Price and Margaret Bonds did in terms of shared experiences as musicians and as human beings. Because it goes without saying that a lot of people care more about ideologies and less about each other as human beings right now. Perhaps the festival can find a way to bridge that divide.

It can be very closed and people can get very closed. Growing up listening to recordings, my family had vinyls or cassettes playing all the time. A lot of the time we listened to music together. Even if I was alone I was still playing music, not locked into an earphone or earbuds privately, it was something that was heard in the house – the shared space. I think music can foster some really beautiful acknowledgment of each other. It’s not just some theoretical exercise. It’s like actually putting it into practice. I think that’s probably what drove me and that’s what drives most musicians to make music. Because you’re wanting a shared experience and wanting to share your own experience as well. 

Once you became pregnant and knew that being here for the festival wasn’t going to be possible did that give you any opportunities to make changes or add other things that maybe couldn’t fit into the program because you were a part of it at one point and now you were not? 

I’m sad. I’m just not going to be there. Obviously I’m growing a human being. So that’s what it is. 

I was supposed to perform History’s Persistent Voice, which featured a lot of contemporary composers who are all Black women. That was an hour-and-a-half program. I decided to save this for another season and think about another program.

That was a great opportunity to perform one of Florence Price’ full symphonies. It was also an opportunity then for me to think about the composers who were associated with History’s Persistence Voice and look at some of their other pieces and see if there was a way to feature their work. 

I’m really excited Courtney Brian’s Sanctum is included. Her work is just super powerful and I’m so glad that that is going to have a premiere at the LA Phil. Valerie Coleman’s selections from her Phenomenal Women will be featured as well. It’s the first time that she will have anything performed at the Phil.

Your first album is going to be something that was to be considered carefully. Now that you’ve recorded it, and I know from earlier in this conversation you haven’t listened to it recently, but what would you like listeners to know about you from hearing the choices that you made for Walking in the Dark and the performances you give?

What do I want them to know about me? I really hope it is just an invitation. All of the music that’s on this is material I’ve lived with for honestly two decades and some of it I’ve performed for a decade. The chance to lay it down and be a part of a recording legacy of some of these pieces that have also been recorded by so many different artists was a rare and wonderful opportunity. It’s not one that I take for granted.

Walking in the Dark, I mean the title of it. I didn’t write this in the liner notes and I’ve only brought it up to a few people, but I want to make it very clear that darkness is not something that should have, in fact, any kind of negative association. I feel in some ways that darkness, or blackness even, has been conditioned in certain parts of societies or cultures to have negative connotations and somehow promotes the idea of a white supremacist ideology. That really is not something that I can tolerate.

I guess it’s been something I have grappled with – a collective question about identity or I have felt that I have had to question my identity for a very, very long time. I made a lot of peace with who I am and how I also am expanding in the various roles that I can take on and feel comfortable in.

James Agee, who probably needs no introduction to you since his poetry inspired Samuel Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915 (which Bullock performs on Walking in the Dark), is quoted as saying, “Some people get where they hope to in this world. Most of us don’t.” I feel like in watching your career over the last number of years that you’re actively working through your art and through your activism to get the world to where you hope it will be. As a soon-to-be mother, what is the world you’d like to see your child living in and how do you think your art can pave a path for that to be a reality? 

Well, I hope that this child will feel safe. That the child will not be limited in anything that they want to invest in and enjoy. That there will be not be a lot of assumptions made or anticipated projections of this child and what they feel they have to represent so that they can just live their lives. But there’s something in safety that feels really important right now.

Photos of Julia Bullock (By Allison Michael Orenstein/Courtesy Askonas Holt)

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“Shall We Gather is like my other child. I’m about to give birth on September twenty fourth and if…” and before pianist Irina Meachem could finish her sentence, her husband, opera star Lucas Meachem added, “it doesn’t happen, we will induce.”

They are talking about their new Rubicon Classics album of American art songs that features Irina on piano and Lucas on vocals being released on Friday. It’s the perfect example of a passion project for the two who have been married since 2016.

After Lucas made his joke, Irina continued when I spoke by Zoom with them last week.

“It’s just years of passion, or hard work and being told we shouldn’t do this and we can’t do it by people in the business. and I’m just so happy to show that we have done it.”

You may recall that I recently interviewed Lucas when he was appearing in the Santa Fe Opera production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Irina works as an accompanist and also coaches opera singers. Since that interview was so recent, I want to give Irina the opportunity to do most of the talking in this interview. Though Lucas will have his say before we’re done.

Shall We Gather features songs by Aaron Copland, Stephen Foster, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jake Heggie, Florence Price, William Grant Still, Kurt Weill and others. The Meachems uses these songs to explore all the different ways and reasons why we gather.

Irina told me why they wanted to do this project.

“Many years ago we wanted to create something that would be very demonstrative of Lucas and his musicianship and his singing. And we went down the usual route, which is all of the famous arias that he sings. And we were dead set on that for some time. Then we realized there is an opportunity to use the platform that Lucas has to really say something. At the time it was about just inspiring people to come together to find commonalities. And we wanted to challenge ourselves and find repertoire that could really have an impact on those who listen and inspire some positive change.”

It was a journey that ultimately ended up yielding not just an album, but their own foundation.

“We went through a journey of finding repertoire that has been historically overlooked and we found that there were so many challenges with it. It was it was not as easy as it was to find [Samuel] Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night. That’s everywhere and it’s been done so much. So we had to challenge ourselves. That’s what’s inspired us to create Perfect Day Music Foundation. It invites other musicians to go across the same journey that we took the to expose ourselves to new, overlooked and neglected repertoire that deserves to be at the forefront of the standard American art song repertoire. I just I want them to have experience what we have. There’s a lot out there. This album is not a consummate collection. This is just the beginning. This is just our own journey with it.”

Any journey they undertook for Shall We Gather meant they had to have a common definition of what an American art song is. Irina was very precise in describing what they were looking for.

“I think what makes an America art song unique is that are the differences; there’s so much variety. You have the older pieces and the Appalachian songs. We have the Aaron Copland and Stephen Foster. But then you also have blues influence, you have jazz, you have these amazing rhythmic freedom of expression. You have this openness to just possibility.

“And there are certain struggles that we all can come together with. For instance, the song that was released as our first single, That Moment On from Pieces of 9/11 by Jake Heggie. That was something uniquely American. Yet I just saw someone comment on one of Lucas’s posts saying it was not just America, the whole world was impacted by it. So there is this influence that America has on the rest of the world. But it is a place of hope. It is a place of rebellion. It is it is a unique place. And that’s what we tried to find.”

Lucas told WQXR radio that he had to find his husband hat and his singer hat when working with Irina and that the challenge is to find the right balance. Does Irina believe that there is one form of balance for the two when they work together or if it changes project-by-project?

“The first year or two of us collaborating together we had to learn what that balance was. And now it’s the same for every project where where the husband hat doesn’t come off for him. We just are so close. Sometimes in a relationship where you really trust somebody you’re not fully acknowledging the other person for what they have to offer. I feel like we are very respectful of our differences. But when it came to communicating, something as simple as that is just as important as the ideas themselves.”

As in relationships, sometimes the most powerful thing in music is silence. Both Irina and Lucas agree that it is arguably one of the most important parts of their lives.

Irina began by saying, “It speaks louder than the applause itself. There is anticipation, there’s numbness when you’re taking in what that sound really was beforehand.”

Lucas added, ” It also shows a collective agreement with the audience that this is a special moment. When you hear it it’s almost like it’s not even that no one’s speaking, it’s that no one’s breathing and you can feel that. It happens rarely in performances because sometimes you get the crinkle of the wrapper or the cough or anything. But when it does, it’s palpable for me as a performer. And it’s like the audience and I are sharing this moment together.”

In the end Shall We Gather doesn’t just represent what Lucas and Irina Meachem believe are the qualities that bring us together. It also celebrates the project that brought them together.

“This is a duet album and Lucas was so thoughtful to to have included me in such a big part because it is it is equal parts,” Irina says. “A singer goes through so much; they have such a big job to do. And I respect what they go through. I can’t do it. Yet there are things that the pianist does which is equally impressive and important for me.

“I feel like I live a very privileged life because all of the work that I’ve put into creating my art, to creating a strong relationship with my spouse and to creating a safe space for my son. That has actually ended well. The most fulfilling part is doing it with Lucas who is a really exceptional singer. And the art, I think, really reflects that.”

Lucas and Irina Meachem’s Shall We Gather will be available on Friday, September 24th.

All photos by Nate Ryan/Courtesy Rubicon Classics

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This weekend the first of two episodes of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Close Quarters series she curated makes its debut. Sonic Shift, featuring the work of composers Marcos Balter, Anna Meredith and Alyssa Weinberg premieres on Friday, April 23rd at 6:30 PM PDT.

The second episode, Beyond the Horizon, featuring the work of composers Alvin Singleton, Mazz Swift and one of Montgomery’s own compositions debuts on May 7th.

Last month I spoke by phone with Montgomery about her collaborations with LACO on this project, bringing in mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard to direct Beyond the Horizon and the future for Black composers in classical music. What follows are excerpts from that conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.

The programming you’ve put together is not the kind of material typically associated with LACO. What was their response to the repertoire you selected?

I’m happy to say there was really a lot of support. I basically used the guidelines LACO uses for their Sessions programming which I ended up transitioning from into this Close Quarters format. Sessions is part of their programming where they stretch beyond their usual repertoire and often includes a lot of new music. I already knew that I was going to be doing a program that was all living composers – so that was already understood. Then from there they gave me free rein. What is your aesthetic? What is your vision? What do you want to hear more of? I thought that was a great directive.

What did you want to accomplish with each episode?

My first instinct was I wanted to choose music I felt attracted to – all identity politics aside. There are two separate programs. Sonic Shift is playing with the balance and transition between acoustic and electronic or electro-acoustic sound worlds. So there’s a progression that happens through from beginning to end with that program. I really wanted to include a nice assortment of chamber wind players so that there was a balance of instrumentation.

The second program was the one I wanted to make more geared around certain aspects of my own music I’m working with and continuing to explore – which is the realm of improvisation. The other two artists are also African American artists. The cross-exploration of improvisation and jazz exists within that second program. And also total avant-garde experimental music through Alvin Singleton. I thought that was an interesting way to frame the broad range of styles and approaches of Black classical musicians.

Isabel Leonard was a surprising choice to direct Beyond the Horizon, particularly for a program about improvisation. The opera world is not exactly where you find improvisation welcomed.

I’m really excited to see what she’s going to do with it. The spirit of spontaneity may be something that she jumps on. We talked a little bit about how she might bring in that quality of surprise and spontaneity.

I love the idea of a performing artist designing and directing the visuals. I think that’s a really awesome and interesting angle for LACO to take. I’m really excited to work with her. Isabel, Nadia [music producer Nadia Sirota] and myself were at Juilliard together. It’s a reunion collaboration in a way.

What gives you faith in this moment in time that Black composers, both dead and alive, will continue to be embraced by major institutions in the long run?

I can say that I’m seeing it happen just in the invitations and the places I’m involved in. I’m seeing more Black artists brought into the decision-making roles whether they are on artistic planning committees or curator roles or even within higher CEO and director positions. There are definitely organizations that are bringing in Black artists and not necessarily letting them do what they want, which is all too common and other organizations that are completely resisting it all together.

It was deliberate that I did a program of all-Black artists, but it was guided mainly by the music and then the fact I wanted to make a contribution in terms of the direction things are moving. There’s as much range amongst Black artists as there is any group of people. I think it’s really interesting in this context to show that range as well. So I would say I have to stay optimistic that these changes and attitudes and the interest we’re seeing is genuine in most cases and that will prevail to keep our ears open and our eyes open.

In a 1936 Chicago Defender* article, composer Florence Price** was quoted as saying, “Keep ideals in front of you; they will lead to victory.” Does that resonate with you and if so, does it inspire you?

Absolutely. I think Florence Price is an incredible example of somebody who really fought that fight. She was told she couldn’t achieve what she achieved. She was rigorous in her writing and in the amount of music she wrote. She was so determined to work within the classical music structure: orchestral pieces, concertos, organ pieces, piano pieces, string quartets – really traditional models. It speaks to her determination and her sense of I’m going to do this because I know it’s possible no matter what happens.

I think we all have to have that attitude as artists – that we can create what we want when we want to create it. Just being a human being and having the right and freedom to create what you want is a natural human right and ability we all possess and develop in different ways. That should be the case for everybody.

*Chicago Defender is an African-American newspaper founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott. It ceased print publication in 2019 and is an online only publication today.

**Florence Price was the first Black American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer. Her Symphony in E Minor was given its debut by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933, marking the first time a work by a Black female composer was performed in the United States by a major classical orchestra.

All photos of Jessie Montgomery by Jiyang Chen (Courtesy MKI Artists)

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