Music Research

A ~ 2 minute YouTube Video from Cambridge University. Description reads: "George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower was a Afro-European violinist who earned a music degree from Trinity Hall in 1811. He was so good that Ludwig van Beethoven wrote music especially for him."

via Europeana. "Joseph Bologne - known as the Chevalier de Saint-Georges - was an 18th century classical composer and conductor and champion fencer. His mixed race heritage - the son of a white father and Black mother - shaped his life in Parisienne and French society in the 1700s."

The manuscript score of Morgiane was on display at the Folger through March 2, 2025. Per the hosting website, via this link: "Scholar Candace Bailey, author of the forthcoming Edmond Dédé: “Morgiane, ou, Le Sultan d’Ispahan” from Cambridge University Press, introduces us to this important American composer who wrote nearly 100 critically and popularly acclaimed works for the French stage and the work of OperaCréole and Opera Lafayette to bring Dédé’s magnum opus Morgiane to life."

"Vicente Lusitano was a sixteenth-century composer and musical theorist perhaps most famous for winning a public debate with Nicola Vicentino and for his important book on theory entitled Introdutione facilissima et novissima de canto ferma (1553). Although he has long been a well-known figure among musicologists, the fact that he was Black has been almost entirely erased from memory. . . "

"Founded in 1997, this is the home of interchange between performers and scholars interested in art song by African-American composers. Here you will find information and links to assist with your discovery of our contribution to song."

"Here you will meet 52 composers, conductors and instrumental performers - Africans, African Americans and Afro-Europeans. Many are alive today, but one lived 500 years ago! These artists are unknown to most of us, yet are so numerous this site can present only a fraction of them. They have made enduring contributions to Classical Music. Several have composed, conducted and performed Classical Music. "

"Music by Black Composers (MBC) was founded in 2001 as a project of the Rachel Barton Pine Foundation"

"The Spirituals Database offers searchable access to recorded track information for concert . . . settings performed by solo Classical vocalists."

In this under 2:00 snapshot, R. Larry Todd attends to Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.

A 7:21 biographical sketch with musical demonstrations and primary source illustrations. From the National Philharmonic description: "Ruth Crawford Seeger, once a budding classical composer, found her way to folk music during the Great Depression. Rebecca Smithorn, Cover Conductor and Lecturer with the National Philharmonic talks about how this moment of world crisis not only influenced Seeger's choice to pursue folk music would also end up having a huge impact on her own stepson, Pete Seeger."

Description of this 41:22 lecture recital: "Dr. Samantha Ege performs and discusses the works of Florence Price in celebration of the composer's birth month. Price was the first Black woman composer to achieve national and international prominence, but she was not an anomaly in classical music. Price belonged to a vibrant community of Black female practitioners in Chicago. In conversation with LMH Principal Alan Rusbridger, Dr. Ege delves into Price's life, music, and legacy."

Via Films on Demand
Description: "At Festival Mozaic, Scott Yoo and his wife, the flutist Alice Dade, get to know America's greatest Romantic composer, Amy Beach, and European women composers of her time. Across the country, they explore Beach's New England roots and career, in a time when polite society looked down on women composers. Despite this resistance, Beach was one of the first to try to invent a truly American music."

From the website description of this Berklee College of Music Project: "Dr. Rhoda Bernard, founding managing director of the Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education, is proud to present the ABLE Voices podcast, featuring disabled artists and arts educators. Each ABLE Voices episode is guest-hosted by a disabled artist. Guests on ABLE Voices discuss their experiences navigating their careers, their artistic development, their arts education, and their creative process."

Description: of this companion website for "Speaking for Ourselves: Conversations on Life, Music, and Autism, by Michael B. Bakan with contributions from Mara Chasar, Graeme Gibson, Elizabeth J. Grace, Zena Hamelson, Dotan Nitzberg, Gordon Peterson, Maureen Pytlik, Donald Rindale, Amy Sequenzia, and Addison Silar. This site features audio and video examples referenced in the text that illuminate key themes, topics, and issues of individual chapters."

Via PBS. Video description: "The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra's Lakota Music Project has been years in the making. This documentary explores the beginnings of the project and how it has evolved into what it is today."

"A tradition of Indigenous women singer-songwriters"

A listing of Artists from Manitoba Music, "a member based not-for-profit, music industry association working with people and companies in all aspects of the music industry in Manitoba." Includes audio and other media examples.

A bibliographic blog entry via the Canadian Art Song Project