The National Association of Negro Musicians will hold its 86th Annual Meeting at the Marriott Downtown St. Louis from July 31-August 3. “Let It Shine” will be the theme underlying a full schedule of performances, workshops, master classes and lectures.
Activities will actually begin on Saturday, July 30, with the continuation of a recording session of spirituals sung by conference attendees and St. Louis-area church choir members. This project was begun two years ago at the annual meeting in Los Angeles.
At the opening session on Sunday, Robert McFerrin, legendary baritone, will be honored. McFerrin was the first African-American male to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. His debut followed Marian Anderson’s by only three weeks. Sunday evening features the 2005 Scholarship Competition in Piano.
On Monday, after the opening general session and the president’s address, there are three scheduled workshops. These include a panel discussion, New Thought in African American Art Songs and Spirituals, led by Willis Patterson, professor emeritus and former associate dean of the School of Music at the University of Michigan; Louise Toppin, soprano, professor of voice at East Carolina University in North Carolina, and director of Videmus, a non-profit organization that produces the concert music of African Americans, women and other underrepresented composers; William Banfield, composer and associate professor of music at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; and Malcolm Rector, composer, writer, filmmaker and professor of music at North Carolina Central University.
Music producer and educator, Jun Mhoon of Chicago will lead a workshop, Marketing Music in a Digital Age. Mark Jordan, music educator and minister of music at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, will facilitate Church Choral Music Performances in Mainstream Mega Churches. Monday afternoon’s activities will close with a concert performed by Collegiate and Emerging Artists.
Monday evening’s Gala Artist Night features a concert shared by Donnie Ray Albert, one of opera’s leading baritones, accompanied by Toni-Marie Montgomery, piano; soprano Indra Thomas, one of the world’s fastest-rising operatic and concert stars, accompanied by Joseph Joubert, piano; and the IN UNISON Chorus, directed by Robert Ray, with members of the St. Louis Symphony.
The singers’ portion of the program will feature works by Franz Schubert, Carlisle Floyd, Robert Owens, Giuseppe Verdi, Erich Korngold, Richard Wagner and George Gershwin and spirituals arranged by Hall Johnson and Charles Lloyd. The IN UNISON Chorus will perform Linda Twine’s Changed My Name, a spiritual-based cantata for chorus, soloists and orchestra inspired by the lives of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.
Tuesday morning’s schedule offers a research session, coordinated by Hansonia Caldwell of California State University-Dominguez Hills. The first presenter is Dr. Jean Snyder, professor of music at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, who will read Harry T. Burleigh: An African American Composer Finds His Voice. Barbara E. Martin, curator of the E. Azalia Hackley Collection of the Detroit Public Library, will read May the Work I’ve Done, Speak for Me: Archiving Your Career Legacy.
On Tuesday afternoon, two master classes will run concurrently. Baritone Donnie Ray Albert will facilitate a vocal master class, while pianist Joseph Joubert will lead the master class in piano. The Youth and Junior Divisions will be presented in concert at the end of the afternoon.
At the Awards Banquet on Tuesday evening, the following St. Louis natives and/or residents will be honored for their contributions to African-American music or to the African-American community: Darwyn Apple, 34-year veteran first violinist with the St. Louis Symphony; Grace Bumbry, international opera trailblazer; Eugene Haynes, concert pianist, educator and author; Dr. Donald M. Suggs, oral surgeon and publisher of the St. Louis American; Dello Thedford, composer-arranger, educator and gospel music innovator; and Doris Jones Wilson, director of the Legend Singers and professor emerita at Harris-Stowe State College.
For further information, visit www.nanm.org, contact Marilyn A. Thompson at nanmnews@aol.comor call Harry Moppins at (314) 241-1143.