A TRIBUTE TO WOMEN’S HISTORY MUSIC BY AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN COMPOSERS
Margaret Bonds
Lori Hicks
Betty Jackson King
chievements Vice President Kamala Harris
Cicely Tyson, Actress
A Tribute to Women’s History A Concert of African American Women Composers PROGRAM Gregory Hopkins, Artistic Director Host and Pianist Artists Samantha Burke, Soprano Paige Madison, Soprano Bernard Holcomb, Tenor Dashon Burton, Baritone The Moon Bridge - Florence B. Price Stars - Harriette Davison Dry bones - Margaret Bonds Paige Madison, Soprano Climbing high mountains - Betty Jackson King Dream variations - Margaret Bonds To be baptized - Undine Smith Moore Bernard Holcomb, Tenor
A Tribute to Women’s History A Concert of African American Women Composers
PROGRAM – Continued
Love let the wind cry - Undine Smith Moore I want to die easy - Lori B. Hicks Samantha Burke, Soprano Night - Florence B. Price You can tell the world - Margaret Bonds Dashon Burton, Baritone Scenes in the life of a Martyr - Undine Smith Moore The voice of my beloved Arise, my love Set me as a seal on thy heart Paige Madison, Soprano Bernard Holcomb, Tenor
KAMALA HARRIS, Vice President •A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a United States Senator from California from 2017 to 2021, and as the Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017. Harris became Vice President upon the Inauguration in January 2021 alongside President Joe Biden, having defeated the incumbent president, Donald Trump, and Vice President, Mike Pence in the 2020 election. •Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, before being recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later the City Attorney of San Francisco’s office. In 2003, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco. She was elected Attorney General of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior United States Senator from California from 2017 to 2021. Harris defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the United States Senate.[7][8] As a senator, she advocated for healthcare reform, federal descheduling of cannabis a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault weapons, and progressive tax reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, including Trump's second Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault. Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination but withdrew from the race prior to the primaries. Biden selected Harris as his running mate in August 2020, and their ticket went on to win the general election in November. Harris assumed office as vice president of the United States on January 20, 2021.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS, first female and women of color at Inauguration; Doug Emhoff, Husband/First Gentleman, is holding the bible: Photo with President Biden, First Lady, Jill Biden and First Gentleman, Doug Emhoff Kamala in photo with Mother prior to 2009.
Parents of Kamala Harris, Shyamala Gopalan, and dad Donald Harris. Kamala with sister Maya Kamala is a graduate of Howard University; A member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and The Links sisterhood.
CICELY TYSON, Actress Cicely Tyson (December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) American actress and fashion model. In a career which spanned more than seven decades, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson received three Primetime Emmy Awards four Black Reel Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, one Tony Award, an honorary Academy Award, and a Peabody Award. In November 2016, Cicely Tyson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in the United States. In 2020, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
CICELY TYSON, Actress Having appeared in minor film and television roles early in her career, Tyson garnered widespread attention and critical acclaim for her performance as Rebecca Morgan in Sounder(1972); she was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her work in the film. Tyson's portrayal of the title role in the 1974 television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman based on the book by Ernest J. Gaines won her further praise; among other accolades, the role won her two Emmy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Cicely Tyson continued to act on film and television in the 21st century. In 2011, she played the role of Constantine Jefferson in the award-winning film The Help. She also played the recurring role of Ophelia Harkness in the legal drama TV series How to Get Away With Murder since the show's inception in 2014, for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series five times. In addition to her screen career, Tyson appeared in various theater productions. She received a Vernon Rice Award in 1962 for her Off-Broadway performance in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. Tyson also starred as Carrie Watts in the Broadway play The Trip to Bountiful, winning the Tony Award the Outer Critics Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play in 2013. Tyson was named a Kennedy Center honoree in 2015. In November 2016, Tyson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in the United States. In 2020, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
CICELY TYSON, Actress
Cicely, Maya Angelou and Oprah
Cicely and Tyler Perry
Cicely and Miles Davis
MARGARET ALLISON BONDS, Composer MARGARET ALLISON BONDS was a composer, pianist, and teacher from Chicago. Her early studies with her mother, who attended the Chicago Musical College, led to tuition in piano and composition with Florence Price and others in high school, followed by study at Northwester University, where she obtained her BM and MM in music in 1933 and 1934. She also did graduate work at Juilliard, where she returned several times for various courses throughout her life. As a student at Northwestern she encountered significant prejudice and discrimination for the first time, but took comfort from her discovery of the poetry of Langston Hughes. She later set many of his poems and corresponded with him extensively. It was around the same time she acquired a young Ned Rorem as a piano student; he later cited her as an important influence and the two remained close. In the 1940s she moved to New York and remained there until the late 1960s; while there she assumed active leadership roles in numerous church, choral, musical theater, and other musical associations. She took additional courses in composition and choral conducting at Juilliard and had hoped to study with Nadia Boulanger, but Boulanger told her she had no need to study with anyone. In 1967, after the death of Langston Hughes, she accepted an invitation to join the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center and Repertory Theater and spent the last five years of her life there. Bonds struggled with depression and alcoholism, particularly in her final years; she died of a heart attack at age 59.
LORI HICKS, Composer Dr. Lori Hicks (b. 1979), a native of Detroit, Michigan, began her musical training at 5 years old playing the piano and singing in church. At 14 she wrote her first composition that was performed by her high school chorus, Renaissance. Since then, Dr. Hicks has built a performance, teaching, and composition career in a wide variety of genres including Opera, Musical Theater, Gospel, Spirituals, R&B and Soul, and Jazz, and most recently techno! With the belief that “Music is Life” Dr. Hicks has enjoyed a full range of musical experiences from the church house to the recording studio to Carnegie Hall. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a Masters of Music from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, and a Bachelors of Music Education from Kentucky State University. Dr. Hicks is the Associate Professor of Voice at Claflin University since 2009. As a classical performer, Dr. Hicks has performed several leading operatic roles such as Bess in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Mimi (La Boheme), Fiordiligi (Cosi Fan Tutte), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief), and the world premiere of James P. Johnson’s jazz opera Dreamy Kid. , Dr. Hicks has been featured in concerts and recitals throughout Italy and France and In 2011, she made her much-anticipated Carnegie Hall debut as the soprano soloist in Robert Ray’s Gospel Mass. Dr. Hicks has been the director for several shows such as The Color Purple, The Magic Flute, Gianni Schicchi, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Old Maid and the Thief, Blue Monday, and Porgy and Bess. Dr. Hicks has moved audiences with her spiritual arrangements and soulful compositions and in 2014, she launched her Debut CD “Music of My Voice”, featuring spirituals and songs all composed and arranged by Dr. Hicks.
BETTY KING, Composer Betty King has a rich and varied background in music. She received the B.M. on piano and the M.M. in composition from Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois, with further study at Oakland University, Glassboro College, and others. Her piano teachers include her mother, Gertrude Jackson Taylor, Saul Dorfman, and Maurice Dumesnil; organ: Joseph Lockett and Abba Leifer; Composition: Karel B. Jarik; and voice: Thelma Waide Brown. She taught at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, Roosevelt University, Dillard University (New Orleans, LA), and Wildwood High School (Wildwood, NJ). King pursued careers in composing and teaching and served as a choral conductor-clinician and lecturer in churches and universities. Her honors include a scholarship from the Chicago Umbrian Glee Club, awards from the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc., "Outstanding Leaders in Elementary and Secondary Education", and "The International Black Writers Conference". King was past president of NANM, Inc. Her compositions are Saul of Tarus, My Servant Job, Biblical operas; Simon of Cyrene, Easter cantata; Requiem; The Kids in School With Me, ballet with orchestration; Life cycle for violin and piano; Vocalize for soprano, cello and piano; sacred, secular novelty, choral compositions; and spiritual arrangements.
UNDINE SMITH MOORE, Composer American composer Undine Smith Moore. She was born August 25, 1904 and died February 6 1989. Considered the “Dean of Black Women Composers” she was in the generation that followed the groundbreaking work of Florence Price. Trained as a classical pianist, she turned to composition. Her output was primarily vocal, inspired by Black spirituals and folk music. She composed prolifically – completing over 100 pieces in her lifetime – but only 26 were published during her lifetime. Moore’s music education began as a child in Virginia, taking piano lessons at the age of seven, which eventually led to her attendance at Fisk University where she majored in piano and organ. Moore became the first Fisk student to ever receive a scholarship from Juilliard, and went on to complete a Masters of Arts and professional diploma at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College. In addition to her prolific compositional output, Moore was a devoted educator, for which she received many rewards at the end of her career. She turned down opportunities for further compositional study to take the role of supervisor of music in public schools in Goldsboro, North Carolina. She would also teach at Virginia State College.
FLORENCE PRICE, Composer Composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher, Florence Price is recognized as the first AfricanAmerican woman to have a symphonic work performed by a major national symphony orchestra. Her extraordinary achievements during the racist "Jim Crow" era are a testament to her immense gifts and determination. Born in Little Rock, AR in 1887, Price grew up in a middle-class household and attended the New England Conservatory, one of the few that admitted AfricanAmericans at the time. Fleeing racial violence in her home state, Price moved with her family to Chicago where her career began to flourish. She won first prize in the Wanamaker Competition with her Symphony in E minor which caught the attention of Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Director Frederick Stock. The piece was premiered by the Orchestra in 1933 with The Chicago Daily News reporting "It is a faultless work, a work that speaks its own message with restraint and yet with passion ... worthy of a place in the regular symphonic repertory."
HARRIETTE DAVISON, Composer* Harriette Davison (1923 -1978) was a composer, violinist, and pianist. She received her education at Oberlin Conservatory, where she was trained as a violinist; the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Columbia University. Her song cycle of Langston Hughes poems, Fields of Wonder, was performed by The New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in 1977 on their celebration of Black Composers week. Her art song In the Time of Silver Rain was recorded and performed by Darryl Taylor. She was a member of the Harlem Symphony and the Symphony of the New World, in both instances joining her husband, Julius Burton Watkins, a horn player who had extensive work in jazz on horn and trumpet. (*) Photo unavailable.
GREGORY HOPKINS, Artistic Director Gregory Hopkins was born and reared in Philadelphia, PA. He received his advanced education in voice from Temple University, and in opera from Curtis Institute of Music. Hopkins has won prizes in competitions including: The Verdi Prize in Busetto, Italy; Outstanding Tenor Award, Mantova, Italy; The Dealy Award and The Opera Index Grant. As a singer, pianist, organist, choral conductor, teacher and clinician, Hopkins has traveled throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and The Middle East, with recent performances including The Cervantes and Pitic Festivals (Mexico); Orvieto, Rome and Umbria Festivals (Italy); Vienne Festival (France) and Vitoria-Gasteiz Festival (Spain). Additional performances included Mozarteum (San Juan, Argentina); Teatro Mayor (Bogota, Columbia); Sodre (Montevideo, Uruguay); Pro Arte (Cordoba, Argentina). His Harlem Jubilee singers recently completed a tour of Chile with the Concepcion Symphony performing Porgy and Bess. He also conducted performances of Gershwin’s “Blue Monday”, Britten’s “The Burning Fiery Furnace” with Harlem Opera Theater and HL Freeman’s opera “Voodoo”. Earlier this year saw concerts in Argentina and Japan. Recently Hopkins has been contracted to provide and prepare singers for Martina Arroyo’s “Prelude to a Performance” and Alvin Ailey’s “Revelation” Celebration at Lincoln Center.
GREGORY HOPKINS, Artistic Director (Continued) Dr. Hopkins has served The National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses as Director of Performance Ministries; The Hampton University Minister's Conference as Recital Co-Coordinator; and Gospel Music Workshop of America as Assistant Music Director to the Men's Department. He has been honored three times to prepare and present musicals for the National Baptist Convention, and was musical director for the NAACP's Centennial Celebration. At Arkansas Baptist College's EC Morris Institute and Ithaca College he has been Choral Clinician. For the Million Man March he was selected by Minister Farrakhan to sing immediately following the address. Equally occupied as an educator, he has served on the faculties of: Community College of Philadelphia; Morgan State University; Westminster Choir College and NY Seminary of the East. Currently, he is Coordinator of Classical Voice and Operatic Activities at Howard University DC. For more than one-third of a century he has been Minister of Music for Harlem's Convent Avenue Baptist Church. He is also Artistic Director for Harlem Opera Theater, Music Director for the Harlem Jubilee Singers and Cocolo Japanese Gospel Choir. He is a featured artist on more than 6 commercially released CD projects; one of which was nominated for a Grammy.
SAMANTHA BURKE, Soprano Samantha Burke Soprano and Violinist Venezuelan-American Soprano and Violinist Samantha Burke, is a student of Amy Shoremount-Obra (The Metropolitan Opera, NY) at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music(M.M) and Erika Kiesewetter (Concertmaster of The American Symphony, NY) (B.M.) from Bard College. Ms. Burke is the founder and director of The Atlanta Concert Series, which seeks to promote young artists’ involvement in the Atlanta community through series of performances in the Fall and Spring. In the Spring of 2021, she premiered a Recital-Documentary entitled, ‘Essential’. Also in the Spring of 2021, she will debut the title role of Carmen in the Brooklyn College Opera (Virtual edition). Equally proficient as a violinist, Ms. Burke has studied the violin for over 20 years and has performed in orchestras and ensembles in Atlanta, Philadelphia, and New York. Samantha is currently pursuing her Masters in Opera at Brooklyn College’s Conservatory (virtually) while teaching privately voice, strings, and piano. Bio Expiration Date: 4/28/2021 (*Use or edit for publication of any kind without prior authorization from the artist is strictly prohibited)
PAIGE MADISON, Soprano Paige Madison is a Classical Vocalist from Brooklyn, New York. She has always had a love and appreciation for music since a young child. She embraced her first operatic experience during her sophomore year in high school and has remained an enthusiast of classical music since. She received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at Howard University and her Master of Music in Voice Performance at the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. She has performed in productions with the Martina Arroyo Foundation, Bethesda Summer Music Festival and Sienna Summer Music and more. She is currently performing around the New York area.
BERNARD HOLCOMB, Tenor Bernard Holcomb, has “already made a name for himself in the world of opera” with his “delicate and flexible” voice (Opera Wire) and the “appealing sweetness and clarity [of] his tone” (New York Times). Katy Walsh of Chicago Theater Beat said it best: “Although everyone [at Lyric Opera of Chicago] can sing, Holcomb reminds us why we come to the Lyric.” This season, Mr. Holcomb makes his début with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in Dancing in the Street: The Music of Midtown and More; performs as a soloist in Lush Life: Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn with Austin Symphony and The Florida Orchestra and in Oregon Symphony’s presentation of An African American Requiem; sings for Broadway Artists Connection’s Cabaret Benefit and performs the role of Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess with Harrisburg Symphony. This past summer, Mr. Holcomb returned to Seattle Opera to perform in their production of Rigoletto, returned to Long Beach Opera for the world premiere of The Central Park Five, and performed in Porgy and Bess in Italy with New York Harlem Productions. Bernard Holcomb was a Harlem Opera Theater finalist in 2017.
DASHON BURTON, Baritone Dashon Burton has devoted his career to tearing down the walls of what it means to be a classical singer, an artist, and citizen for justice. In the reminder of the 2021 season, Dashon will make his solo debut at Caramoor for a live-streamed recital on March 21, 2020, featuring the works of Schumann, Bonds, and Price. He will also return to the Bethlehem Bach Festival (PA) in May of 2020.He has also garnered his fourth and fifth nominations for the 2021 Grammy Awards for his work on two albums: Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road, and Ethel Smyth’s The Prison.
ABOUT HAR LEM OPER A THEATER Under Artistic Director, Gregory Hopkins, internationally acclaimed tenor, conductor, organist and pianist, Harlem Opera Theater performances include all types of musical offerings: opera, oratory concerts, recitals, Negro Spirituals and varied forms of American music, in keeping with our mission “to provide performance opportunities for professional and developing gifted artists within Harlem and communities where opera is seldom performed; and to cultivate and expand audience appreciation for opera and classical music through creative programming.” Particular focus is given to the works of African American composers and to projects that link different aspects of the performing arts.
OUR HISTORY AND ACHIEVEMENTS Board of Directors Edwina Meyers Lynch, President Gregory Hopkins, Artistic Director Carol Brown, Secretary Members Leslie Bright, Jeffrey Colvin, Dante Harrell, Ruqaiyah Nabe, Twila Perry Arturo Carvajal, International Coordinator
The mission of Harlem Opera Theater is to provide performance opportunities for gifted professional and developing singers, as well as other musicians of exceptional potential for an operatic career in local, national and international forums. The organization develops an audience for the classical art form in underserved communities where opera is seldom heard. Founded in 2001 under the leadership of Dr. Gregory Hopkins, Artistic Director, as a non-profit corporation, the concert season includes a Salute to Black History Month in February, celebrating Spirituals by African American composers such as Harry T. Burleigh, Father of the Spiritual Arrangement, Hall Johnson and Margaret Bonds; also, selections from operas of classical composers, Giuseppe Verdi, Gaetano Donizetti and Scott Joplin. We present concerts, recitals and new initiatives; we collaborate with other organizations to present new artists throughout the year and host a Community Holiday Sing in December. We have hosted a master class for artists and a community focus group session with Harlem stakeholders. We develop the audience and potential artists of the future as we present “Opera for Beginners”, a music literacy project to enrich the lives of children through inschool performances in the NYC Public Schools; charter schools and after school programs, such as the Northside Center. Harlem Opera Theater has presented approximately 150 classical singers in concert to a combined audience of over 15,000 patrons of the arts.
2020 – 2021 Season Acknowledgements and Collaborations Our Board of Directors wishes to thank patrons of the arts for their continuing support during this global pandemic, which has allowed Harlem Opera Theater to appear on the virtual stage. Harlem Classical Music Celebration Opera Ebony, Three on 3 Music, The Harlem Chamber Players Harlem Opera Theater Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer Gomez Tax Corp. | Harlem One Stop | Harlem Presents Harlem School of the Arts | The Brownstone Donations Welcome and Appreciated. www.harlemoperatheater.org
A Tribute to Women’s History ~ Music by African American Women Composers ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND THANKS – SPONSORS and the Friends of Harlem Opera Theater
VIDEO ~ Nidal Q. Harvey GRAPHIC LOGO ~ Ruthann Richart
A Virtual Tribute to Women’s History of Music by African American Women Composers YouTube: https://youtu.be/Yl8McJthrOQ
Website: www.harlemoperatheater.org