Intended Audience
St. Mary's College of MD Musician-in-Residence Brian Ganz will join two of his talented students of piano, Brian Bates of Anne Arundel County and Emma Huckabee of St. Mary’s County, in a concert of music for one and two pianos by Black and women composers. The program, entitled A Celebration, will take place on March 29 at 12 noon in Auerbach Auditorium of St. Mary's Hall on the College campus.
"I'm very excited about this event," pianist Ganz said. "There is so much genius that has traditionally been underrepresented on concert programs. My students and I are thrilled to be a small part of changing that. We'll hear music by African American composers Florence Price and William Grant Still, composers that deserve to be much better known than they are. We'll also hear a beloved rag by the great Scott Joplin, plus a work by Martha Kelsey that makes an explicit connection between poetry and music, a connection that- as my students will attest- is very important in our studio!"
The heart of the program will be a movement from the "Piano Sonata in E minor" by Florence Price. "The music world is finally recognizing what an extraordinary composer she was," said Ganz. Price was the first African American woman to have a major work performed by a leading orchestra, the Chicago Symphony. "That was in 1933," Ganz observed, "but only recently has her music been heard on anything like the scale it deserves." Price was also a superb composer of teaching pieces for beginning students. St. Mary's College of Maryland junior Brian Bates, a psychology major from Anne Arundel County and piano student of Ganz at the College, will play one or two of these creative and unusually substantive pieces.
Concert audiences might be more familiar with the work of African American composer William Grant Still, whose music attracted more of the attention it deserved during his lifetime. "He was actually the first African-American composer to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra. His Afro-American Symphony was played by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 1931, just two years before the historic performance of the Price in Chicago." Ganz will be joined by his student Emma Huckabee, a junior at the College and a music major from St. Mary's County, in an arrangement for 2 pianos of Still's exquisite work "Summerland."
Campus visitors must be up to date on vaccinations for COVID-19 and be able to present proof upon request by College officials when attending indoor events or large gatherings outside when social distancing cannot be ensured. If campus visitors are not up to date on vaccinations or cannot show proof, they must present proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of arrival to campus.