Daily Classical Music Post

This February, the Daily Classical Music Post celebrates Black composers and musicians whose music has been suppressed and ignored. All of these musicians should be added to the music history and music theory curriculum. https://youtu.be/k-JyCiN3Iwg William Grant Still (1895–1978), known as the “Dean of African American composers,” was the first Black American to conduct a major symphony orchestra (the New Orleans Philharmonic Orchestra), the first to have a symphony (his first symphony) performed by a leading orchestra (the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra), the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company (the New York City Opera), and the first to have an opera performed on national television (on PBS). Still collaborated with the poet Langston Hughes (the libretto was completed by Still’s wife Verna Arvey) on the three-act grand opera Troubled Island , based on a play by Hughes about the revolution that led to the foundation of the Black republic of Haiti. Still be...