Nationality: American

Born in Cicero, IL, Dec 22, 1921
Died in New York, Dec 12, 1957¹

• Robert Kurka was an American composer best known for his orchestral suite, The Good Soldier Schweik. This suite was later expanded into a two-act opera.
• Kurka briefly studied under Otto Leuning and Darius Milhaud, though he was largely self-taught.²
• Kurka taught at City University of New York and Queens College. He also briefly served as composer-in-residence at Dartmouth College.³
• The composer died of Leukemia at just 35 years old. In a tragic moment of irony, just months before his death, Kurka received a Creative Arts Award from Brandeis University with the following declaration: “To Robert Kurka, a composer at the threshold of a career of real distinction.”⁴

Born in Jarratt, VA, Aug 25, 1904 
Died in Petersburg, VA, Feb 6, 1989 

• Moore was educated at Fisk University and Columbia University Teachers’ College. She also received honorary doctorates from Virginia State University and Indiana University.¹
• Moore was a professor at Virginia State University in Petersburg, where her educational accomplishments included co-founding and co-directing the university’s Black Music Research Center.²
• Moore specialized in choral compositions and sacred music.³
• Her oratorio on the life of Dr Martin Luther King Jr., Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1981.⁴

Biographical sketch from the Undine Smith Moore Collection at Indiana University, Bloomington 

Biography from African American Registry 

Biography from the African Diaspora Music Project 

Sources

1. Olivia Mattis, “Moore, Undine Smith,“ Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 24, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000047040.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. “Undine Smith Moore Collection, 1951-1981” Indiana University Archives Online, accessed February 24, 2022, https://archives.iu.edu/catalog/VAE0300.

Pieces

Daniel, Daniel, Servant of the Lord

Afro-American Suite

Born in Brooklyn, August 1, 1913
Died in Miami, July 25, 1983

Learn More
Composer’s website

BoBorn in Winston-Salem, NC, June 14, 1932
Died in Chicago, IL, Mar 9, 2004

• Perkinson was named after the British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.¹
• Perkinson studied composition at the Manhattan School of Music and Princeton Univeristy. He studied conducting at the Berkshire Music Center.²
• Perkinson served as music director of institutions including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the American Theater Lab (with Jerome Robbins), and the Symphony of the New World, which he co-founded.³
• Perkinson served as Coordinator of Performance Activities at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago.⁴

Biography from Keiser Southern Music

Biography from AfriClassical

Sources

1. Carman Moore and Anya Laurence, “Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor.” Grove Music Online (February 6,  2012), accessed May 17, 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002219404. 
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. “Composers: Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson,” Keiser Southern Music (2020), Accessed May 17, 2021, https://www.keisersouthernmusic.com/composers/coleridge-taylor-perkinson.

Pieces

String Quartet No. 1, “Calvary”

Blue/s Forms

Sinfonietta No. 1 for Strings

Sonata for Flute and Piano

Born in Lexington, KY, 25 Mar 1924
Died in Akron, OH, 24 April 1979

• Julia Perry received both her Bachelor and Masters Degrees from Westminster Choir College. A few years later, she went on to study composition in Europe with names such as Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger.
• Early on in her career, Perry was heavily influenced by her Western classical education while still drawing on African American influences, including Spirituals and the blues. However, as the climate around race in the U.S. shifted in the late 1950s and early 1960s, her works became more outwardly expressive of her own experience as a Black woman. She also became more bold in calling out injustices she witnessed occurring around her.¹⁵
• As a composer, Perry wrote music for orchestra, chamber ensemble, chorus, and voice. Unfortunately, much of her work was lost following her death or has yet to be published.
• In 1970, Perry suffered a debilitating stroke that paralyzed her right side and made her unable to speak. She taught herself to write with her left hand so she could continue composing; however, more strokes over the next few years would greatly hinder her recovery. She died in 1979 of a heart attack at 55 years old.
  • While she continued writing up until her death, many of her post-stroke manuscripts have left potential publishers and advocates of her work unable to confidently read her writing, leading to a significant lack of published work for the composer despite her prolific career.¹⁶

Born in Little Rock, AR, 9 April 1887 
Died in Chicago, IL, 3 June 1953 

Born Florence Beatrice Smith 

• Price was the first African-American woman to achieve national recognition as a composer. 
• Price studied at the New England Conservatory, and was also a student of George Whitefield Chadwick. 
• Price’s Symphony no. 1 in e minor won the Wanamaker Competition in 1932, which provided a premiere with the Chicago Symphony in 1933. This premiere constituted the first time a major American orchestra performed a work by an African-American woman. 
• Price was especially prolific and successful as a composer of art songs.¹⁸

Florence Price website maintained by Price scholar and Karen Walwyn 

Born in Pittsburgh, PA, Nov 2, 1875
Died in Los Angeles, Aug 29, 1946

• Anna Priscilla Risher was a composer, pianist, organist, cellist, violinist, and singer. Additionally, Risher was a respected painter and champion for women in classical music.
• Risher composed 350 works, including chamber music and large-scale orchestral works. She also published pedagogical piano technique books.
• In addition to composing, Risher established several music organizations, such as the Hollywood Women’s Symphony Orchestra.¹⁹

Biography

Born in Hammels Station, Long Island, NY, June 28, 1902
Died in New York, Dec 30, 1979²⁰

Biography from Songwriters Hall of Fame

Born in New York, NY, Aug 4, 1910
Died in New York, NY, Feb 15, 1992

Biography

Born in Chicago, Dec 22, 1907
Died in Chicago, Feb 15, 1999

• Irene Britton Smith was a composer and educator of African-American, Crow, and Cherokee descent. Showing musical talent from an early age, Britton studied piano and violin. While she hoped to study music at university, due to financial constraints, Smith pursued a degree in education.
• In 1930, Smith began working in the Chicago Public Schools as an elementary school teacher. She would remain a public school teacher for over 40 years, though she never gave up pursuing music on the side.
  • In 1943, Smith earned a BM degree from American Conservatory of Music. In 1946, Smith took a sabbatical from teaching to study composition at the Juilliard School with Vittorio Giannini. She completed a MM degree in composition at DePaul University a decade later. Smith even spent a summer in France studying with legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger.
• As a composer, Smith wrote 36 works, over half for voice. She admired French neo-classical style, while her favorite composers were Tchaikovsky and Brahms.²⁴

Born in Louisiana, Missouri, 27 November 1904
Died in Chicago, 25 April, 1962

• American jazz violinist who received a formal education in classical music.

Biography via The Syncopated Times

Born in Woodville, MS, May 11, 1895 
Died in Los Angeles, Dec 3, 1978 

• Still studied music at Oberlin College, and also studied composition privately with George Whitefield Chadwick and Edgard Varèse.
• Early in his career, Still worked as an arranger for W.C. Handy, Paul Whiteman, Artie Shaw and many jazz artists.
• In 1931, the Rochester Philharmonic premiered his Afro-American Symphony, making him the first African-American composer to have a work played by a major American symphony orchestra.
• Other firsts in Still’s career:
  • He was the first African-American to conduct a major orchestra (the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936) 
  • He was the first African-American composer to have an opera premiered by a major opera company (Troubled Island, New York City Opera, March 31, 1949)²⁵

Biography from William Grant Still Music: organization directed by Still descendants 

Born in Anderson, SC, Jan 28, 1887
Died in Hendersonville, NC, June 6, 1958

• Lily Strickland completed her formal training at the Institute of Musical Art in New York (now Julliard).
• As a composer, Strickland was consistently inspired by the music of diverse cultures throughout her career.
  • Earlier on, she was influenced by Black musical traditions and Native American melodies.
  • From 1920-29, Strickland lived in India, where she soon became fascinated with non-Western idioms.
  • *Note from Rebecca – I would recommend treading lightly when playing some of Strickland’s pieces. Though she studied the music of these diverse cultures to varying degrees, I can also see arguments made regarding cultural appropriation of these musical traditions.
• Strickland wrote about 400 pieces, including operettas, piano pieces, and songs, “Mah Lindy Lou” being the most popular among them.²⁷
• In addition to music, Strickland was also a writer, poet, and painter. She wrote numerous scholarly cultural articles, wrote the lyrics to her songs (in addition to standalone sonnets), and painted cover illustrations for many of her compositions.²⁸

Learn more:

Biography (written by the son of Strickland’s first cousin)
Short biography from the South Carolina Encyclopedia

Born in New York, NY, April 21, 1899 
Died in Cambridge, MA, July 9, 1984 

• Thompson’s teachers included Ernest Bloch and Francesco Malipiero. He won a Prix de Rome in 1922.³¹
• When he was a student at Harvard, Thompson was failed his audition for the Glee Club. Regarding this rejection, Thompson said, “My life has been an attempt to strike back.”³²
• Thompson had a long and distinguished teaching career, at institutions including UC Berkeley, the Julliard School (where he taught Leonard Bernstein), and Harvard University.³³
• Thompson is best known for his choral works, which include both sacred and secular motets and cantatas, a Requiem, and a Mass. His choral music is often influenced by historical styles, ranging from Renaissance polyphony to American shape-note singing. His oeuvre also includes three symphonies, a radio opera and chamber works.³⁴

Biography from ECS Publishing 

Born in Kansas City, MO, Nov 25, 1896 
Died in New York, NY, Sept 30, 1989 

• In addition to composing, Thomson was an influential and accessible music critic. For many years he was the chief music critic at the New York Herald Tribune. 
• Thomson was educated at Harvard and also spent time in Paris in the 1920s, where he met Satie, hobnobbed with Les Six and took composition lessons with Nadia Boulanger. He also met Gertrude Stein, who became a good friend and collaborator (he set her texts multiple times, including collaborating on two operas). 
• Thomson’s mature musical style combines influences from American hymns, 19^th-century dance, and traditional tonality with a dash of diatonic dissonance and polytonality.³⁴

Composer website from the Virgil Thompson Foundation