The 1930s and 50s witnessed an amazing blossoming and expansion of artistic creativity in the Black community. I’m focusing on three specific composers that were a part of the Chicago Black Renaissance movement, and the following generation that benefited and still continue to benefit from the incredible work that took place. The Chicago Black Renaissance movement began in the 1930s into the mid 1950s, based primarily around the Bronzeville neighborhood on the south side of Chicago. It was very much a literary inspired movement. At the heart and soul of it was the incredible advocacy, poetry and prose of Langston Hughes. There are three fascinating Black women composers that I'd like to focus on that are connected to this movement and then what came after.

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Ferruccio Busoni was a master of musical synthesis who spent a lifetime seeking to penetrate the ultimate mystery of all music. He was born in Empoli, Italy and died in Berlin, Germany. Busoni is one of the more complicated, compelling, fascinating life stories that I've run across in recent years because of the richness of his many musical activities. He toured as one of the truly preeminent concert pianists through Europe and US for decades. He taught in short stints at music conservatories in Helsinki, Finland, and in Boston, at the still nascent Conservatory of Music. He also taught in Moscow for a year. He wrote extensively on music, both as a music critic, but also with his treatise, which is more a musical philosophical treatise that was published in the early twentieth century.

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Born 1804, died 1875 both in Paris. Her father, Jacques Ednais Dumont, and brother, Auguste, were well known and highly regarded sculptors, allowing Louise a very arts rich background and family history. She began to express precocious musical talents at an early age, and thus ended up studying piano, securing her place in the pianistic and musical firmament. She first studied music with Cecile Soria, a former student of Muzio Clementi. Farrenc worked with her for several years. Later, she went on to work with leading pianistic virtuosi of the day; Ignaz Moscheles, but more importantly, Johann Nepomuk Hummel. I think Hummel had a tremendous influence on Farrenc, both pianistically and compositionally.

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I'm constantly inspired by meetings of specific people, in specific places, at specific times, and the incredible art that often comes out of these encounters. Such is the case with Mozart's Dissonance String Quartet. Here is a brief exploration of the six string quartets that Mozart composed and the impact that composer Joseph Haydn had on Mozart’s work. In 1781, Mozart.became acquainted with Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and they attended various quartet parties together. These quartet parties were something of a tradition. On February 16th, 1785, at a quartet party during a ten week visit to the Mozart household in Vienna, Haydn approached Mozart's father, Leopold, and relayed what has become one of Haydn's most well known quotes.

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In 1982, the autographed copy of a piano trio composed by a teenaged Claude Debussy was discovered in the effects of one of Debussy's piano students. I will get to that after I explore a bit of history. An early Debussy composition, Piano Trio in G Major is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a world beating composition. However, it does give me an opportunity to delve a little bit more deeply into the life of the teenaged Debussy and to look for seeds of potentiality which would then manifest themselves later on in his life as a mature composer, teacher, writer, thinker about music, culture, art. Achille Claude Debussy was born in 1862 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and died in 1918 in Paris. Debussy came from rather humble beginnings. When he was very young, he and his parents lived over a china shop that his parents owned.

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Brazilian composer, one of my very favorite, under the radar composers that is not necessarily too widely known. I'm hoping that will change. Francesca Chiquinha Gonzaga, born in 1847 in Rio. A colorful life story, to put it mildly. Her mother Rosa was a Mestizo slave in Brazil and her father, Jose Basilio, was actually a relatively high-ranking military officer. He decided to claim Chiquinha as his daughter, marry Rose, and therefore Chiquinha was set on a pathway where she was, as the child of a military officer, going to apparently receive quite a good education, including piano study. Chiquinha composed her first piece at the age of eleven, apparently for a Christmastime celebration in their local church and she never looked back.

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How is it that a buffoonish, conniving, misshapen cultural icon of Western and eastern European culture since the Renaissance worked its way into music? In this post, I present a brief exploration of one of my favorite cultural figures, and of course, how that figure manifests musically, especially in Western and Eastern European musical traditions. Of course, we're talking Pulcinella. For my purposes, from a pianistic standpoint, I'm focusing on the French version of the original Italian character, Polichinelle, and I'll have two wonderful piano pieces in the video at the end of this blog that really highlight the importance of the Pulcinella character. Let's look into a little background, a little history of Pulcinella.

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1720 saw the publication of Eight Great Suites for the harpsichord and provide a window into Handel’s unique relationship to the art of keyboard playing. His use of counterpoint was less rigid than that of composers such as JS Bach and Handel’s love of forms which rely on a repeated (ostinato) bass line or harmonic progression allowed him to create a continuous series of variations, Handel said of this set of suites, “I have been obliged to publish some of the following Lessons because surreptitious and incorrect Copies of the had got Abroad. I have added several new ones to make the Work more useful.” These suites were possibly composed for his student Princess Anne, daughter of King George II.

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As I have often sought inspiration in the methods, thought processes, and stories of great teachers for my own work, the monumental work of Nadia Boulanger as pedagogue, performer, conductor, composer, and thinker has been a constant touchstone. Her imprint on the evolution of 20th century American music is without peer. In the words of American composer and critic (and early Boulanger pupil) Virgil Thomson: “At one point every American town had two things: a five and dime and a Boulanger pupil.”What were some of the early influences that shaped Madame Nadia’s’ approach towards teaching and leading an artistic life? In a nutshell, it’s all about family.

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Through her legacy of research, teaching and recordings, Mme. Landowska’s devotion to 17th and 18th century keyboard music laid much of the groundwork for the resurgence of Early Music studies later in the 20th century. She succeeded in attracting a popular following at a time when other harpsichordists met with little or no success. Her commitment to her artistic vision was unwavering throughout the course of her life, taking her from Poland, Germany, France and later to the US. This commitment to her art and her prodigious talents make Wanda Landowska one of my keyboard heroes.

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For the first time in well over a year, I’m preparing to play in a public concert. Reflecting our current reality, this will be a performance shared with an appropriately distanced and masked audience of 50 (already maxed out) and also to an online audience via live-stream. My three colleagues and I will be continuing our annual Palm Sunday tradition of performing Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” at Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago.

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