Tuesday, February 10, 2025
11:00 a.m.
Florence Kopleff Recital Hall
United in Purpose
Rollo Dilworth | b. 1970
Georgia State University Tenor-Bass Choir Dr. Patrick K. Freer, conductor Owen Talley, piano
Lyrics by Dr. Maya Angelou: "The onus is upon us all to work to improve the human condition. Perform good deeds, for that is truly the way to battle the forces of entropy that are at work in our world. The composite of all our efforts can have an effect. Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. When we unite in purpose, we are greater than the sum of our parts."
Maya Angelou (1928–2014) was a celebrated American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist best known for her groundbreaking 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A multi-talented author, actor, and performer, she wrote seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards, more than 50 honorary degrees, and worked with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr.
Mephisto Masque
Edmond Dede | 1827-1903
Roger Pomposello Jr, euphonium Dr. Kyung-mi Kim, piano
Edmond Dédé was an American musician and composer from New Orleans. Born free, he fled the antebellum United States to Europe in 1855. He worked in Bordeaux for more than forty years, first as assistant conductor at the Grand Théâtre and then as a conductor of orchestras at other local theaters. His compositions include works for orchestra and for various voices with orchestra or piano, as well as an opera Morgiane, for which the score was unknown until 2007. Morgiane is the earliest known opera by an African-American composer. It received its first complete concert performances in February 2025.
Background: “Helping Hands” by Muhammad Yungai This mural celebrates the contributions and sacrifices of Atlanta Civil Rights activists by showing the generation of young students for whom they paved the way. Location: 111 James P. Brawley Dr. SW, Atlanta
When Life Gives You Violins
Tiana Campbell | b. 2005
GSU Violin Studio
Violin I Ethan Nicholas Giulliana Scaramazza Serena Scibelli Violin II Aaron Meksvanh Kyle Muhammad Torrance Mosley Violin III Donghee Shin Shaki Mason Tiana Campbell
View the legacy of four African American women educators and activists. Location: 420 Edgewood Ave. SE, Atlanta
Three Little Dances
Florence Price | 1887-1953
Camilo Andrés Ayala Merchán & Roger Pomposello Jr, euphonium Ceasar Arroyo & Finn Thurston, tuba
Florence Beatrice Price was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music, and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price became the first black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra when Music Director Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played the world premiere of her Symphony No. 1 in E minor on June 15, 1933. Although this premiere brought instant recognition and fame to Florence Beatrice Price, she would “continue to wage an uphill battle – a battle much larger than any war that pure talent and musical skill could win. It was a battle in which the nation was embroiled – a dangerous mélange of segregation, Jim Crow laws, racism, and sexism.” (Women’s Voices for Change, March 8, 2013). The same fate would also befall fellow Arkansan William Grant Still, the “Dean of Black Composers”.
Jeannine
Duke Pearson | 1932-1980
Gordon Vernick, trumpet Joel Powell, bass Josh Brown, drums Kevin Bales, piano
Columbus Calvin "Duke" Pearson Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer born in Atlanta. Duke Pearson was an accomplished pianist, composer, arranger, and producer who played a big part in shaping the direction of Blue Note Records throughout the 1960s and composed many memorable pieces including “Cristo Redentor,” “Jeannine,” “Idle Moments,” “You Know I Care,” and “Sweet Honey Bee” which were performed by Donald Byrd, Grant Green, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, and others. Born in Atlanta, Pearson was introduced to brass instruments and the piano as a youth, and his abilities on the latter inspired his uncle, an Ellington admirer, to give him his nickname. Dental problems forced Pearson to abandon the brass family, so he worked as a pianist in Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia and Florida before moving to New York in 1959. There, he joined Byrd’s band and the Art Farmer-Benny Golson Sextet, and served as Nancy Wilson’s accompanist. He also began his long association with Blue Note that year by recording his first two albums as a leader, Profile and Tender Feelin’s.
Background: “Flowers Divine: Honoring Marjorie Prothro” by Charmaine Minniefield Florist Marjorie Prothro was the first African American business owner of Hapeville. Location: 3468 N. Fulton Ave., Hapeville
This mural is about Atlanta’s most prominent Civil Rights leaders and their courage and depicts Ralph David Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King and John Lewis. Location: 320 Sunset Ave. NW, Atlanta
Summerland
William Grant Still | 1810-1856
Giulliana Scaramazza, violin Miya Suen, piano
William Grant Still Jr. was an American composer of nearly two hundred works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, and more than thirty choral works, art songs, chamber music, and solo works. Summerland is the second of three Visions, written in 1935. Originally composed for solo piano, this short, intensely expressive work has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and combinations. The piece is essentially an elegy -- dreamy and atmospheric, suggesting the summer of its title, with hints of the blues and a nod to his fellow composer Debussy. - Program Note by Thalia Symphony Orchestra, 2019
Umoja
Valerie Coleman | b.1970
Jaylan Jones, Maria Manolatos, Veronica Del Castillo & Lincy Torralva, flute Nicole Hom & Natalie Ng, alto flute Dillon Hauke, bass flute
Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as the creator of the wind quintet Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Coleman's Umoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed. Coleman is known for her many contributions to wind chamber music and with Imani Winds, she released a number of studio albums with the group, one of which was nominated for Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2005.
Agoru VII
Alvin Singleton | b. 1940
Karma Allen, vibraphone
Argoru VII is an exercise in Alvin Singleton’s methods of extreme contrasts. Fast, ascending grace note scales are followed by soft, memory evocative long tones. The contrasts of the quick and the long passages become miniature call-and-response dramas while pedal schott aktuell tremolandi suggest a certain mystery. Singleton’s fondness for drama, economy of means, unpredictability, and contrast are on display in this elegant sounding piece for vibraphone. This work was commissioned by the Music Teacher’s National Association and the Georgia Music Teacher’s Association.