“All I know about music is that not many people ever really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours.”
    — James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues

We must do better.

The music of great artists like Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Florence Beatrice Price belongs in the same conversation as Brahms and Dvorak, and the only reason it hasn’t happened yet is because of the historical exclusion that people of color have faced, an inequitable status quo which is finally being challenged.

In honor of Black History Month, 45^th Parallel Universe presents four programs of brilliant music by black composers, starting on February 5th with Unvanishing Evocations, featuring Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s epic Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, and Keyla Orozco’s evocative Piezas de Bolsillo.

The rest of the month continues to shine a spotlight on more great music (click on the composer’s name to read more about them):

• February 12 – Neo Soul: mousai REMIX performs music of Portlander Damien Geter, Nia Imani Franklin, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.
• February 19 – Voodoo Dolls: Pyxis Quartet performs music of Carlos Simon, Florence Price, and Jessie Montgomery.
• February 26 – Adoration: Arcturus Quintet performs music of Florence Price, Ed Bland, Valerie Coleman, George Walker, Justinian Tamusuza, William Grant Still, and Adolphus Hailstork.

Black history is American history. The spotlight we bring to the music of these artists won’t turn off at the end of the month. This isn’t about checking off a box, or marking this job down as completed. Our programming philosophy has always sought to represent the richness and diversity of our musical traditions, something we’ve always done and will continue to do regardless of what month it is.

Ron Blessinger
Executive Director, 45^th Parallel Universe