1 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:29,550 Tonight, I'm delighted to present a lecture recital in celebration of International Women's Day as part of the humanities cultural programme. 2 00:00:29,550 --> 00:00:35,150 One of the founding stones for the future, Devenish Walsman Centre for the Humanities. 3 00:00:35,150 --> 00:00:47,500 I will be performing here in the Oakshott Room inside the historic Lincoln College, built in 14 27 and located in the heart of the city of Oxford. 4 00:00:47,500 --> 00:00:56,740 We will be looking at and listening to the musical lives and legacies of four African-American women from the era of the black Chicago Renaissance. 5 00:00:56,740 --> 00:01:07,800 This was an era of cultural rebirth, social transformation and rich artistic expression that took place in the first half of the 20th century. 6 00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:09,170 The Black Chicago Renaissance, 7 00:01:09,170 --> 00:01:18,180 so thinkers and visionaries of African descent bring about a rebirth in all aspects of life and identity and whether it was through music, 8 00:01:18,180 --> 00:01:28,250 art, dance, literature or theatre. The expressive arts were important vehicles for self actualisation and collective uplift. 9 00:01:28,250 --> 00:01:38,460 The south side was the locus of activity. Located in the black belt, but redefined by those on the inside as the black metropolis. 10 00:01:38,460 --> 00:01:43,500 Various forms of brilliant artistry flourished here. 11 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:51,150 As a musicologist, I'm interested in how black women composers used their craft to build communities on the South 12 00:01:51,150 --> 00:01:57,930 Side as well as to assert their individual identities in the wider world of classical music. 13 00:01:57,930 --> 00:02:05,490 As a pianist, I hope that by performing their music, we not only come to appreciate who these women were in their time, 14 00:02:05,490 --> 00:02:11,790 but we additionally create the space for their voices to resonate with us today. 15 00:02:11,790 --> 00:02:15,120 I'd like to begin with the composer, Florence Price. 16 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:23,850 Price came to mainstream attention in 1933 when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premiered her symphony number one in a minor. 17 00:02:23,850 --> 00:02:31,690 This was the first time that a major national orchestra had performed the symphonic work of a black female composer. 18 00:02:31,690 --> 00:02:41,110 My research explores this history through price of Chicago and the models of black female patronage and support behind her success. 19 00:02:41,110 --> 00:02:46,660 This narrative leads us to the larger network of black women composers in interwar Chicago. 20 00:02:46,660 --> 00:02:53,740 But we find Nora Holt better, Jackson King and Margaret Bonds, whose music you'll soon hear. 21 00:02:53,740 --> 00:02:58,810 I've been performing Florence Price's piano music for the past few years and on my new album, 22 00:02:58,810 --> 00:03:07,900 which is called Fantasy Magged The Piano Music of Florence Price. I focus on her engagements with this wonderfully expressive fantasy genre. 23 00:03:07,900 --> 00:03:13,510 She blends African-American folk songs with the late 19th century romantic tradition. 24 00:03:13,510 --> 00:11:01,310 And we're left with these four exquisite fancies that capture the diversity of her cultural heritage. 25 00:11:01,310 --> 00:11:07,100 I reconstructed Florence Price's third fantasy, which was thought to be lost. 26 00:11:07,100 --> 00:11:11,960 And so bringing this work to life, along with the other pieces on the album, 27 00:11:11,960 --> 00:20:04,080 sheds new light on a hidden and previously unheard aspect of Price's story. 28 00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:09,510 In the case of Nora Holt, I wish I could tell you about her 200 compositions. 29 00:20:09,510 --> 00:20:14,580 She wrote orchestral music, songs. Chamber works and solo pieces. 30 00:20:14,580 --> 00:20:20,280 She was a highly sought-after performer in the U.S., China and across Europe. 31 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:24,060 And when she would travel, she would keep her music in storage. 32 00:20:24,060 --> 00:20:31,080 But on one occasion, she returned to find that her belongings had been ransacked and all of her music was gone. 33 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:39,690 Only two pieces survived. One was an art song called The Sandman, and the other was a short work for solo piano called Negro Dance. 34 00:20:39,690 --> 00:20:46,080 These pieces remain with us today because Nora Holt published them herself. 35 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:52,080 One of the earliest Chicago performances of Negro dance was 100 years ago. 36 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:59,220 Nora Holt would perform this as part of the lecture recitals that she gave to the younger generation through Negro dogs. 37 00:20:59,220 --> 00:23:01,490 She would highlight the importance of musical study and the beauty of black American folk traditions. 38 00:23:01,490 --> 00:23:06,860 Unlike Nora Holt, who was born in Kansas. I'm Florence Pryce, who was born in Arkansas. 39 00:23:06,860 --> 00:23:11,630 Betty Jackson King and Margaret Bonds were born and raised in Chicago. 40 00:23:11,630 --> 00:23:14,720 Betty Jackson King came from a very musical family. 41 00:23:14,720 --> 00:23:22,700 Her mother, Gertrude Smith Jackson, was deeply involved in musical life on the South Side and together with Betty's sister, Catherine. 42 00:23:22,700 --> 00:23:27,080 They formed the Jacksonian trio touring Chicago and beyond. 43 00:23:27,080 --> 00:23:35,270 The musicologist Helen Walker Hill remarks upon how their close harmonic singing style influenced Betty's own compositions. 44 00:23:35,270 --> 00:23:43,040 And we hear this in the for seasonal sketches. Little has been documented about the performance history of this work. 45 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:51,990 But one striking detail is that she dedicates four seasonal sketches to her Chicago colleague and friend, Geneva Handey SuBo. 46 00:23:51,990 --> 00:23:57,110 Dr. SuBo was a pianist and pioneer in black music scholarship. 47 00:23:57,110 --> 00:33:48,600 This dedication, therefore, demonstrates the collegiality and reverence that defined the dynamics between the black Chicago Renaissance women. 48 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:54,510 Margaret Bonds was a child prodigy and daughter of the black Chicago Renaissance. 49 00:33:54,510 --> 00:34:02,010 Her music teachers included her mother, Estelle Evans, who was a very influential community figure in Chicago. 50 00:34:02,010 --> 00:34:09,520 Margaret also studied under Florence Price and many other provenance names in the black classical scene. 51 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:18,730 The bonus family home was open to the community as a rehearsal space, an intellectual salon and a place of refuge for those in need. 52 00:34:18,730 --> 00:34:27,650 These are the kinds of environments that I focus on in my scholarship because they expand our thinking about black women in classical music. 53 00:34:27,650 --> 00:34:34,460 Rather than focussing on black women's exceptionalism in the classical mainstream, 54 00:34:34,460 --> 00:34:44,320 we find a more nuanced narrative when we situate their accomplishments in the uplifting communities at which they arose. 55 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,440 I'd like to close with Margaret Borden's spiritual sweets, 56 00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:55,570 part of which I recorded on my first album called Full Women Music for Solo Piano by Florence Price, 57 00:34:55,570 --> 00:35:00,460 Czechoslovakian lover Ethel Bills and and Margaret Bonds. 58 00:35:00,460 --> 00:35:04,600 Although Bonds was no longer living in Chicago when she wrote this piece. 59 00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:09,880 The influence of women like Nora Holt and Florence Pryce is undeniable. 60 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:17,390 Like her predecessors, she brings together black vernacular idioms and classical conventions. 61 00:35:17,390 --> 00:47:48,820 She draws inspiration from the past and shapes this into a distinct voice that suggests hope for the future. 62 00:47:48,820 --> 00:47:57,190 This brings us to the end of what has been a fantastic evening here at Lincoln College, but before you go, I have one more thing to share with you. 63 00:47:57,190 --> 00:48:01,600 And that's the release of my album, Fantasy Magged, available now. 64 00:48:01,600 --> 00:48:06,820 So I hope that you continue to enjoy this wonderful repertoire. 65 00:48:06,820 --> 00:48:14,320 Thank you to Lincoln College Lord Chris Charity, the Zilka Trust and Torch for supporting this event. 66 00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:17,500 Thank you. Also to our viewers at home for watching. 67 00:48:17,500 --> 00:48:48,640 And for your comments on YouTube, we do hope that you've enjoyed tonight's International Women's Day celebration.