The New World Symphony in Florida “will host a week-long, multi-disciplinary festival celebrating the history and influence of the Harlem Renaissance,” writes Taylor Grant in Wednesday’s (12/29) Musical America (subscription required). “I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond launches February 1 with poet Kevin Young and musicologist Dr. Tammy Kernodle hosting … a 60-minute poetry reading and concert of works by Margaret Bonds, William Dawson, Moses Hogan, Florence Price, and William Grant Still, as well as traditional gospel songs. The following evening pianist Michelle Cann … several of her students and the NWS offer [keyboard music by] Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Helen Eugenia Hagan, Jelly Roll Morton, Florence Price, Hazel Scott, Irene Britton Smith, and Fats Waller. The Feb. 3 program … presents chamber music by Black composers. NWS fellows, in collaboration with NWS Founder and Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas and Dr. Kernodle explore a contemporary program of composers…. The festival concludes on Feb. 5 with … Thomas Wilkins and NWS Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas … leading” works by William Dawson, William Grant Still, Florence Price, James P. Johnson, and Duke Ellington.
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