.png)
Karen Slack and Michelle Cann:
The ONEcomposer-Curtis Session
May 2021
In May of 2021, ONEcomposer joined forces with soprano Karen Slack and pianist Michelle Cann to celebrate the songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds - recorded and produced in partnership with the Curtis Institute of Music. This was the first-ever collaboration between two of the finest musical interpreters of our generation, both of whom are Sphinx Medal of Excellence. Explore this dynamic session which shines a spotlight on Bonds, Price, and their exquisite, extensive writing for the voice. We invite you to enjoy performances, interviews with the artists, and scholarly commentary, provided by musicologist Dr. John Michael Cooper.
SONGS OF MARGARET BONDS
from Five Creek Freedmen Spirituals:
IV. Lord I Just Can't Keep from Cryin'
V. You Can Tell the World
To a Brown Girl Dead - text by Countee Cullen
SONGS OF FLORENCE PRICE
Bewilderment - text by Langston Hughes
At the Feet o' Jesus - text by Langston Hughes
THE ARTISTS SPEAK:
Karen and Michelle discuss Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and the experience of collaborating for the first time.
On Discovering the Music of Price and Bonds
On Discovering the Music of Price and Bonds
On their hopes for the legacies of Price and Bonds
Michelle Cann - On Collaborating with Karen Slack
SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY
Provided by Dr. John Michael Cooper
"I'm a musician. I'm a teacher. I'm a scholar. I have a passion for social justice. I believe that the most important thing we can do -- for ourselves, our understanding of who we are, our history, our future -- is to learn music and understand how it serves as a lens into the world that produces it and a lens into who we are. Music is the key to understanding ourselves in all the diverse beauty and complexity of the human condition. And it is the key to making our world a better world. The most important thing, though? That is to learn the music that we do not already know -- the musical voices that others are
not already telling us to listen to, the voices and works that have been erased from our collective history. That's why I edit music -- why in my teaching, my scholarship, and most of what I do I emphasize composers and works that have been lost or neglected, works that are forgotten, composers we need to know. I access manuscripts and early editions, then I commit them to print in source-critical modern editions that performers can read. It's why I constantly teach and help others to explore connections -- connections across history, among cultures, among disciplines and sub-disciplines. I collaborate, I teach, and do everything in my power to help others enrich their own lives through music."