Black Composers

All of your comments and suggestions are very welcome!

Introducing MBC's new Vocal and Opera Repertoire web page! With many requests for this repertoire, we are excited to finally provide a list of resources! musicbyblackcomposers.org/sheet-music/re…

@MBComposers research advisor @warevolf is posting one piece per day to amplify the voices of Black composers. Today is "52nd Street" from the Jazz Suite by American composer David Baker. Let's all take a listen!

MBC research advisor @warevolf is posting one piece per day to amplify the voices of Black composers. Today is Jamaican-British composer @Eleanor_Alberga's Violin Concerto No. 1. Let's all take a listen!

You’re invited! A live virtual recital of all 22 pieces from @MBComposersViolin Volume 1! Saturday, June 6th, at 2pm CDT performed by Sylvia Pine (age 8, daughter of @RBPviolinist). Please watch the livestream at youtube.com/SylviaPineMusic We hope that you tune in!

How have you been using MBC’s resources to celebrate Black History Month? We would love to hear about it! Please tweet and tag MBC! #MusicbyBlackComposers #ExpandtheCanon #ChangingtheFaceofClassicalMusic #BlackisClassical #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackHistoryMonth2020

Composer @Brian_R_Nabors received two world premieres in Atlanta last month! His piece “3 Dances” was played by the Atlanta Chamber Players, and “Onward” by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Congrats, Brian! bit.ly/2YLGGdK

Student composers, tis the season! Check out this resource for finding undergraduate and graduate composition degree programs to apply to! Thanks to @robdeemer for compiling and sharing this awesome directory! #ExpandtheCanon #BlackisClassical bit.ly/35dSKGI

Thanks to violinist @afroviolinist for participating in MBC as a Role Model for Violin Volume 2, coming out soon! She's a founding member of the @SphinxOrg's @HarlemQuartet sustains an active solo career, and teaches yoga to musicians. #ExpandtheCanon #BlackisClassical

Composer & jazz trumpeter @T_Blanchard will have his opera, “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” staged at New York’s @MetOpera in the 2021-22 season... as the first Black composer to do so in the 136-year history of the Met! nyti.ms/2IMQZrg #ExpandtheCanon #BlackisClassical

Happy Halloween from MBC! #Halloween #costumes #cello #MusicbyBlackComposers #ExpandtheHorizon #ChangingtheFaceofClassicalMusic #BlackisClassical

“Porgy and Bess”— celebrated as the quintessential opera of the Black American experience—opened at the @MetOpera last month. @nytim3s reported about operas by African-American composers 1911-2009: all deserve to be performed and celebrated!bit.ly/MBCOperas #ExpandtheCanon

Congrats to @valeriecoleman for her commission of “Umoja, Anthem for Unity,” world premiered by @philorch on 9/19: the orchestra’s first performance of a piece by a living African-American woman composer. Excited for many more to come! bit.ly/MBCValerieCole… #BlackisClassical

MBC’s Head Researcher & Writer, Megan Hill, attended Reflecting on the Past, Reaching Toward the Future, a conference on African-American music at the @UMich: fascinating chats with @ReginaBaiocchi, @simoncarlos1, @_Klavia, Andre Myers, Chad Hughes, Uzee Brown #BlackisClassical

Music historian Joseph Horowitz surveys the debate about what "defines" American classical music & poses a hypothetical alternate history in which an “American school” privileging the Black vernacular had, in fact, been canonized. bit.ly/RBPHorowitz #ExpandtheCanon

MBC Violin Volume 1 was published a year ago! How many pieces has your kid learned? Have you been teaching the music to students? Has your school performed any? We are curious about the impact of this groundbreaking publication! bit.ly/MBCViolinVol1 #ExpandtheCanon

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Ghanaian composer and ethnomusicologist, J.H. Kwabena Nketia. The acclaimed and influential musician and scholar died this morning at the age of 97. ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/…

More exciting buzz about our Music by Black Composers project, this time from Billboard!! billboard.com/articles/news/…