The Pianists Played to an Appreciative Audience
In the shadows of the behemoth Lincoln Center complex, located just of Broadway at 65th Street is a smaller musical resource known as the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center. It’s where the Gateways Music Festival presented Gateways Pianists at Merkin Hall. Entering the building brought back bittersweet memories of my daughter’s school days at The Special Music School of America. The school, created to nurture musically gifted children is affiliated with the Kaufman Center, as is the Hall. Back then, in 2002, she was one of two children of color in her seventh-grade class. There were no more than five African-American students in the entire school of approximately 84 students.
Now, long after my daughter graduated from the school and from college for that matter, I was attending an historic concert in the Cultural Center’s 500-seat recital hall where five pianists of African descent were being presented. Each musician took the concert hall stage, marking a rare representation. Each was a pianist par excellence.
Taking the Stage
The performers: Mikael Darmanie, Tabetha Johnson, Artina McCain, Nnenna Ogwo, and Joseph Williams gave the audience African-American composer awareness lessons. They performed works by lesser known composers as well as familiar ones. Every performance embodied the intensity and spirit of the performers and composers. Compositions were musically complex, yet enjoyable for attendees who may not have understood the intricacies of music theory. Each performance was well received, stimulating and showed beyond a doubt the virtuosity of the musicians.
A Composer’s Showcase
Brian Rafael Nabor (b. 1991), Piano Sonata # 2 (world-premier) was performed by Joseph Williams. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Mr. Nabor has worked with the Detroit Symphony and was commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and ROCO Chamber Orchestra. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).
Nnenna Ogwo took the stage to perform Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), From 24 Negro Melodies, Op. 59 (Movements lll & lV). Born in London, England, Coleridge-Taylor wrote mostly for solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. Ogwo also performed a work entitled Toccata by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004). Born in New York, NY, Mr. Perkinson was a violinist, conductor, and composer named after Samuel Colleridge-Taylor. His accomplishments spanned the arenas of classical, jazz, dance, pop, film and television.
The program was also balanced out with a work by composer Margaret Bonds (1913-1972). Tabitha Johnson performed Troubled Water. Bonds was a pianist, composer, and teacher from Chicago. She studied composition with Florence Price who was well-celebrated in several of the other concerts in the Gateways Music Festival. Bond later did graduate work at Juilliard. She primarily wrote music for voice, but also created works for stage plays, ballet, and children’s operetta.
A work by Joseph Joubert (b. 1958) entitled Passion Medley, was performed by Artina McCain. An accomplished pianist, whose works have been described as “sensitive” and as having an “uncommon tonal beauty.” McCain’s performance aptly demonstrated this. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music with Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees Joubert’s, arrangements and performances span from classical to pop, from Broadway to gospel, and spiritual to R&B.
Pan Con Timba was next on the program. The work by Cuban-born composer Aldo Lopez Gavilan (b. 1979) was performed with passion by Artina McCain. Gavilan who comes from a family of acclaimed musicians is a pianist, composer, and an actor, He has been praised for his technique and “rhythmic fire” by the Seattle Times and noted as a “formidable virtuoso” by the London Times. Beyond his virtuosity, the addition of his work to the program expanded the diasporic conversation of the joyous complexity of our African heritage.
Composing Jazz Within Classical Form
Of course no program of piano compositions would be complete without a nod to a symphonic jazz great, Duke Ellington (1899-1974). Black and Tan Fantasy, arranged and performed by Mikael Darmanie was a joyous poignant punctuation to all the programs represented musically and politically. This jaunty blues piece runs the gamut from smooth connected notes, to short separated notes and shows a lot of variation. Mr. Ellington, Washington, D.C. composed thousands of scores and created a distinctive sound in Western music. He began performing professionally at the age of 17 and was intrigued with composing jazz within the classical form.
Darmanie delivered Ellington’s intricate piece with distinctly meshed elements of jazz and classical forms; he ended the concert with Frederic Chopin’s (1810-1849). Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53, illustrated this wonderful musician’s superior ability to jump from Ellington to a demanding Chopin composition. The melodic complexity of this work broughy the evening to a magnificent close.
For me, the evening was extraordinary. It demonstrated in every manner possible the artistry and cultural contributions continuing to be made by classical composers and musicians within the community. Hopefully the administrators of the Special Music School of America, as well as others were listening too. But as for this music lover, I was emotionally full… and proud.
See our other reviews on the Gateways Music Festival.