As the holiday season officially makes its debut this Thanksgiving week, there’s money and music to behold.
First up, the Palm Beach Symphony has hired its first ever Development Director in its 41-year history.
Then there’s Chloe Flower who’s released an album of holiday music composed by women. It’s called She Composed – The Holidays.
Finally we ask the question: How does your concert outfit affect perceptions of your performance?
Jazz pianist and composer ArcoIris Sandoval spent her summer all over the place. We met her in July at the Zinc Bar in New York’s The Village where she was performing over a couple of nights before heading off to Massachusetts and other venues around the country. Sandoval took the time to learn more about her craft with her master’s degree in jazz piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music. In 2018, she released her debut Sonic Asylum Trio album entitled “First Voyage” which won a Global Music Award In 2018. She has also earned respect from long time jazz performers. So much so that George Cables performs her original composition “Journey to Agartha on his latest album “I Hear Echoes”.
It’s been a busy and awarding season for some young emerging Black American classical musicians. Pianist Clayton Stephenson and Violinist Njioma Chinyere Grievous were the recipients of The Avery Fisher Career Grant Award. Another, Tyler Taylor, won the Emerging Black Composers competition from the San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
We also honor an early music musician, James Nicholson, whose career spanned more than 25 years.
The National Association of Negro Musicians Convention
Njioma Grevious – Photo credit Jiyang Chen
Imagine what it must be like to have someone give you a free trip to the arts camp you’ve always wanted to attend.
That happened to 15 high school students all over Texas via the Young Masters Program of the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas Cultural Trust.
Lerchen Zhong of Westwood High School in Round Rock is the only local student chosen for the program. He already knows where he wants to spend his summer.
Dr. Gary Gibbs, the executive director of the Texas Commission On The Arts says the grants are for all disciplines in the arts.
Althea Waites is a pianist extraordinaire. In her 85 years, she has performed all over the world and will occasionally accept invitations to teach master classes at music schools across the country. She has produced several albums, including her 2023 grammy nominated album, Reflections in Time. Her main goal is to perform new music and the music of composers of color. She has recorded the works of Margaret Bonds, Jeremy Siskind and Curt Cacioppo along with three of the “Three-Fours” of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Waites is scheduled to perform this month at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
Events and Opportunities:
THE APOLLO – CELEBRATING 90 YEARS AS THE SOUL OF AMERICAN CULTURE
Clayton Stephenson @ New York Philharmonic
The California African American Museum in Los Angeles
This is a collection of stories about interesting people doing interesting things.
Jazz pianist and composer ArcoIris Sandoval spent her summer all over the place. We met her in July at the Zinc Bar in New York’s The Village where she was performing over a couple of nights before heading off to Massachusetts and other venues around the country. Sandoval took the time to learn more about her craft with her master’s degree in jazz piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music. In 2018, she released her debut Sonic Asylum Trio album entitled “First Voyage” which won a Global Music Award In 2018. She has also earned respect from long time jazz performers. So much so that George Cables performs her original composition “Journey to Agartha on his latest album “I Hear Echoes”.
