Composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama.
“It’s a pretty sure bet that not until now would it have been possible to string together a monthslong concert calendar of compositions by Black women,” writes Peter Dobrin in Sunday’s (3/12) Philadelphia Inquirer (login required). “The stretch between March and the end of the season lands like a … mini-festival of discovery. Race and gender are factors well worth considering. But sometimes lost in the dialogue about whose music is getting performed and why is the news of the art itself. Probably not since the authentic-instrument movement decades ago has classical music experienced an invigoration like the current reexamination of the repertoire. The infusion of works by all underrepresented groups is already an artistic achievement … Works of the past are being unearthed, filling in parts of the musical timeline you never knew existed. And a significant slice of the population’s incipient talent suddenly has … opportunity to develop its voice and forge new aesthetics.” The article discusses concerts featuring works by Florence Price, Mary Lou Williams, Julia Perry, Margaret Bond, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Zenobia Powell Perry, as well as a reading at the African American Museum by drag queen Cookie Diorio of When Marian Sang, a children’s book about contralto and civil rights activist Marian Anderson.
