Virtual Piano Recital on Black Diaspora Composers

The St. Mary’s College of Maryland music department will present OUT OF THE CRUCIBLE: How Black Composers Combined Their Roots with the Classical Tradition, featuring pianist Jada Campbell.  Ms. Campbell, a student of piano performance at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, will present the free virtual lecture recital at noon on Friday, March 12. She will present works by African American composer Florence Price and Jamaican composer Oswald Russell. St. Mary's College of Maryland Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz will join Campbell before the presentation for a brief discussion of this little known repertoire.

The program will premiere on Zoom and will be free and open to all who register for it, and will later be available through streaming. To register, visit this link:  Bit.ly/JadaSMCM

After registering, participants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Call 240-895-4498 during business hours for more information.

“In the early 20th century, many American composers who had been trained on European classical forms started to blur the lines between classical traditions and folk music from their roots,” Campbell said. “None did so more bravely, fiercely, or creatively than African-American composers,” she continued. Beginning with a study and performance of Jamaican composer Oswald Russell’s "Three Jamaican Dances," and finishing with American composer Florence Price’s "Fantasie Negre No. 4," this lecture demonstration will showcase the genius of two composers who used classical forms that were traditionally barred from them, and wrought innovations based on those forms by drawing from their unique Black cultures.

Jada Campbell is a pianist particularly interested in performing solo works from the Black diaspora, especially by women composers. She has performed solo and chamber works throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe. She is in her final year of undergraduate study at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she studies with Brian Ganz.