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NEWS
Florence Price's 'Piano Concerto' is a knockout in Phildelphia Orchestra's first performance
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin
"But a manuscript of the original orchestration turned up at auction in 2019, and two Cornell University music professors, Tamara Acosta and Stephen Spinelli, pitched the orchestra on the idea of programming the concerto in collaboration with their ONEcomposer project."
"But the thing that strikes me after listening to the concerto more than a dozen times is how much it says in so short a span...Price is moving from storm to carefree summer idyll to ecstatic joy - so deftly, with so many other more subtle emotional messages along the way - in well under 20 minutes."
'Why have I never heard of this?': Philadelphia Orchestra revives America's first Black woman composer
WHYY, Peter Crimmins
"Steve Spinelli, assistant director of choral programs at Cornell University, says Price was never able to get a foothold in the higher echelons of classical music during her lifetime.
'The World War II aesthetic of music: The idea that modernist music and experimentation of a particular variety was held in higher esteem than her neo-Romantic lush harmony,” he said. “And, of course, let’s be honest, there was her own proclaimed — she called them ‘handicaps’ — of sex and race. She was very vocal about how challenging her career was because of those two factors.” Spinelli is the cofounder of OneComposer, a new initiative to bring deserving but unsung composers to the attention of scholars, orchestras, and audiences."
Philadelphia Orchestra performance of Florence Price symphony begins an overdue commitment to the Black female composer's works
The Philadelphia Inquirer, David Patrick Stearns
"Musicians in different parts of the country who stumbled upon her music independently have begun finding each other and championing Price’s works. These efforts were accelerated by the Black Lives Matter movement and centralized by G. Schirmer Inc. (which has the publishing rights) and ONEcomposer, an advocacy group founded by Cornell University faculty members that aims to celebrate unsung musicians."
Soprano Shares Her Voice and Perspectives with Babson Community
Babson Thought & Action, Eric Beato
"Slack was introduced by their son, Steve Spinelli, the assistant director of choral programs at Cornell University and the co-founder of ONEcomposer, which celebrates musicians whose contributions have been historically erased. He was instrumental in introducing Slack’s virtuoso voice to Babson, in particular because of her entrepreneurial spirit on and off the stage. 'Our friend Karen Slack is the total package,' Steve Spinelli said in his introduction. 'She sings on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, but lives in search of new and creative ways to impact our world. She is the consummate leader and still the ideal team player.'"
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PRESS RELEASES
MARAGERT BONDS PAPERS - YALE UNIVERSITY
Vocal music, most 1960s or undated, consisting of autograph manuscript drafts and arrangements, transparencies, and diazo reproductions, some accompanied by copies of published music; and a small amount of other papers. Autograph manuscript music includes spirituals arranged for solo voice or chorus; The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Songs of the Seasons, Three Dream Portraits, and other songs on texts by Langston Hughes; songs on texts by Edna St. Vincent Millay and other poets; and musicals and songs with lyrics by Janice Lovoos, some with related correspondence. Other papers consist of a scrapbook containing photographs, clippings, and ephemera, most circa 1928-1930, some relating to Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, and Lawrence Richardson; and two books containing biographical information about Bonds and analysis of her music: Mildred Denby Green, Black Women Composers: A Genesis (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1983), and Alice Tischler, Fifteen Black American Composers: A Bibliography of Their Works (Detroit: Information Coordinators, 1981).