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WGTE Public Radio FM 91 Announces Special Programs To Mark
Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month
WGTE Public Radio station FM 91 presents several special
programs to mark Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History
Month.
Monday, January 19 at 7:00 p.m.
A Beautiful Symphony of Brotherhood: A Musical Journey in
the Life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up listening to and singing
church songs, and saw gospel and folk music as natural tools
to further the civil rights movement. In this hour-long
special from WQXR in New York, host Terrance McKnight
interweaves musical examples with Dr. King's own speeches
and sermons to illustrate the powerful place that music held
in his work--and examines how the musical community
responded to and participated in Dr. King's cause.
Monday, February 2 at 7:00 p.m.
No Boundaries, Music in the Life of Coleridge Taylor
Perkinson
Coleridge Taylor Perkinson arranged songs for Harry
Belafonte and Marvin Gaye. His film scores featured Sydney
Poitier and Cicely Tyson and Muhammed Ali. Alvin Ailey and
the Dance Theatre of Harlem commissioned his ballet scores.
However, Perkinson’s deepest desire was to become a composer
and conductor of classical music. At age 23, his first
string quartet was played in Carnegie Hall, and a decade
later Perkinson co-founded the country’s first fully
integrated orchestra - Symphony of the New World. This
biography highlights his personal life, his diverse
compositions and the orchestra he helped found.
Monday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m.
Langston Hughes - I Too Sing America
Langston Hughes, an enduring icon of the Harlem Renaissance,
is best-known for his written work, which wedded his fierce
dedication to social justice with his belief in the
transformative power of the word. But he was a music lover,
too, and some of the works he was most proud of were
collaborations with composers and musicians. This one-hour
radio special shines a light on Hughes's lesser-known
musical compositions and dives into the songs, cantatas,
musicals and librettos that flowed from Hughes' pen. As he
did with his poetry, Hughes used music to denounce war,
combat segregation and restore human dignity in the face of
Jim Crow. His musical adventures included writing lyrics for
stage pieces such as Black Nativity and
Tambourines to Glory, works that helped give birth to
the genre of Gospel Play, as well as songs for radio plays
and political campaigns, and the libretto for Kurt Weill’s
Street Songs.
Monday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m.
The Price of Admission: A Musical Biography of Florence
Beatrice Price
A one-hour program that brings to light the music and legacy
of one of America’s pioneering but nearly forgotten
composers which takes a biographical look at Price’s
symphonic music, songs, and works for piano and organ. The
radio documentary includes archival interview tape of
composer Margaret Bonds talking about her friendship with
Price and Marian Anderson’s performances of Price’s music
recorded during “The Bell Telephone Hour,” a popular musical
showcase in the 1940-'60s. Price was born in Little Rock,
Arkansas, but spent her professional career in Chicago. Due
to her musical talent and her family’s affluence, Price
enrolled at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where
she majored in organ and piano. After graduating with two
degrees, Price worked as a college professor, a church
organist and a theater accompanist. However, she is best
remembered as the first woman of African descent to have a
symphony performed by a major American orchestra. In 1933,
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played her Symphony in E
minor. That orchestra also premiered her Piano Concerto the
following year.
Monday, February 23 at 7:00 p.m.
Still Swinging, Still Classic: A Musical Biography of
Pioneering Pianist Hazel Scott
A portrait of Hazel Scott (1920-1981), the wife of late
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and a Julliard-trained
pianist who performed in some of the world's most
prestigious concert halls. Known as a “darling of Café
Society,” the Trinidad-born Scott was quickly recognized as
a child prodigy, being accepted as a piano student at
Juilliard at age 8. By age 14, she was playing in touring
female bands while being mentored by Billie Holiday, Fats
Waller and Art Tatum. Later in life, Scott became a
trailblazer in Hollywood; an outspoken civil rights activist
which made her a political target; and finally an outcast,
after being ostracized from her then-husband’s renowned
Harlem church because of her musical style. One of the
reasons we've chosen to devote a special to Scott is her
under-appreciated place in music, despite activism in the
entertainment industry that rivaled that of Paul Robeson. |
