2010 program - African-American Composers' Initiative

Performers:

Yolanda Rhodes, soprano

Josephine Gandolfi, pianist

LaDoris Cordell, Deanne Tucker, pianists/vocalists

Susan C. Brown, violinist

Victoria Ehrlich, cellist

featuring compositions by

Leslie Adams

Margaret Bonds

Charles Brown

Valerie Capers

Billie Holiday

Betty Jackson King

Undine Smith Moore

Florence B. Price

Howard Swanson

William Grant Still

I. Four Songs of Tribute

Billie’s Song (lyrics by LaDoris Cordell) by Valerie Capers

dedicated to Billie Holliday

God Bless the Child words and music by Billy Holiday and

Arthur Herzog

A Song Without Words by Charles Brown

dedicated to Blind Willie Johnson, blues singer and slide guitarist

A Death Song (Lullaby) (Paul Lawrence Dunbar) Howard Swanson

dedicated to Lawrence Winters

Yolanda Rhodes, soprano

with LaDoris Cordell, Josephine Gandolfi,

and Deanne Tucker, piano

II. Instrumental Music by William Grant Still

Kaintuck’, for piano and orchestra by William Grant Still

(orchestral reduction for piano II by Verna Arvey, wife of and frequent collaborator as pianist and poet with W. G. Still)

LaDoris Cordell, soloist, and Josephine Gandolfi, piano II

Three Miniatures by William Grant Still

for violin, cello and piano

Ride an Old Paint (Cowboy song)
Yaravi (Peruvian lament)
Jesus is a Rock in the Weary Land (Spiritual)

Picasso Ensemble: Susan C. Brown, Victoria Ehrlich,

and Josephine Gandolfi

III. Two Spirituals

Watch and Pray by Undine Smith Moore

It’s Me O Lord (with instrumental trio) by Betty Jackson King

Yolanda Rhodes, La Doris Cordell, and Picasso Ensemble

Intermission

IV. Solo Piano Music by Still

Out of the Silence (from Seven Traceries) by William Grant Still

Dark Horseman (from Three Visions)

Deanne Tucker

V. Three Artsongs

My Dream (Langston Hughes) by Florence B. Price

For You There Is No Song (Edna St. Vincent Millay) by Leslie Adams

In the Springtime (Shakespeare) by Betty Jackson King

Yolanda Rhodes, Josephine Gandolfi, and Deanne Tucker

VI. Spirituals and Piano Music based on Spirituals

Come Down Angels by Undine Smith Moore

Lord, I Just Can’t Keep from Cryin’ by Margaret Bonds

Troubled Water, for piano duet by Margaret Bonds

Yolanda Rhodes, Deanne Tucker,

Josephine Gandolfi, and LaDoris Cordell