Racial Equity

One of my favorite local composers is Reinaldo Moya, and this week I’d like to share some of his music for orchestra and strings. Click here to explore several recordings of his work. Reinaldo is originally from Venezuela, and now teaches composition at Augsburg University in Minneapolis. In 2016, his Passacaglia for Orchestra was chosen as the winner of the Earshot Composers Competition sponsored by the American Composers Orchestra. He also recently served as Composer-in-Residence for the Schubert Club and has written several operas that have been performed in New York and Minnesota. When I listen to recordings of his ensemble pieces I hear a fascinating intricacy and interplay between the instruments, and a wonderful variety of textures and overlapping melodies!

Want to go deeper? Click here to learn about Moya’s 2019 opera, commissioned by the Schubert Club. Tienda tells the story of Luis Garzón, a Mexican musician who immigrated to Minneapolis in 1886 and opened a small Mexican grocery store, or tienda de abarotes, in St. Paul in the 1920s. Although Luis was fully integrated into Minneapolitan society, his store served as a community hub for the newest arrivals from Mexico, many of whom had fled the Mexican Revolution to work on the sugar beet farms of rural Minnesota. The opera explores the immigrant experience and reveals a chapter in the history of St. Paul that is unfamiliar to many community members.

Racial equity work has started in earnest for most large classical music institutions after the events of the past year. However, there are many classical groups that have been working for decades to influence change and promote racial equity in classical music. Please read about these organizations, their efforts, and lessons learned in the following article. As musicians and an organization, what can we learn from them?

“For These Classical Musicians, It’s Always Been About Racial Equity” by Joshua Barone

I’m excited to share one of my favorite music resources and invite us all to explore the compelling music of composer, performer, and educator Jessie Montgomery! The Washington Post writes that Montgomery’s music “interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, language, and social justice, placing her squarely as one of the most relevant interpreters of 21st-century American sound and experience. Her profoundly felt works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life.”

NewMusicBox is an online magazine of print and video interviews with living composers. What I love most about these interviews is that we get to connect with composers as human beings: we’re invited in to see photos of their daliy lives and learn who & what has influenced their music. In this 2016 NewMusicBox interview, Montgomery talks about Banner, which she was commissioned to write as a reflection on the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner. Drawing on musical and historical sources from various world anthems and patriotic songs, she made an attempt to answer the question: “What does an anthem for the 21st century sound like in today’s multi-cultural environment?” Listen to a fantastic live recording of Banner by the LA Philharmonic.

Learning about racial equity has required me to do the hard work of investigation and self-reflection. I am embarrassed to say that I never really questioned why there weren’t more black classical composers. Of course, once I started investigating, I found there were many! And yet, why hadn’t I ever heard their names, listened to their music, or even performed their works? And, why aren’t they included in “standard” classical repertoire?

The next two weeks please enjoy learning about Florence Price, the first recognized African American female symphonic composer. The Chicago Symphony performed a world premiere of Price’s first symphony in 1933. Although she won a composer’s award for this symphony, she faced obstacles due to her race and gender. Price’s first and fourth symphonies were recently recorded by the Fort Smith Symphony, the oldest symphony in Arkansas (her home state). Here is an interview with conductor John Jeter regarding these recordings.

https://www.yourclassical.org/story/2019/02/20/new-classical-tracks-john-jeter-fort-smith-symphony-florence-price

Florence Price’s music blends African American and European traditions. Notably, she included the Juba dance (a dance done by slaves on plantations) in both her first and fourth symphonies, throwing out the traditional Austrian-German scherzo movement, making it a truly American symphony. Listen to the symphonic slide whistle and African drums in the third movement of the 1st symphony! She also incorporates the spiritual “Wade in the Water” in her Symphony No. 4. Explore more in this article about Florence Price and her work.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/21/686622572/revisiting-the-pioneering-composer-florence-price

*A few years ago, a couple discovered 30 boxes of about 200 compositions by Florence Price (including her 4th symphony) in their newly purchased home south of Chicago! After the success of her Price’s 1st symphony, why were her subsequent compositions ignored and left to languish in storage?