News and music to start the week!

There was a lot of coverage of Clara Schumann’s 200th Birthday on Friday!  Read more through the Library of Congress blog, from Isata Kanneh-Mason (who recently recorded Clara’s works for piano) at The Guardian, find a thorough synopsis of her life and works at Deutsche Welle, and listen to many examples of her music at UDiscoverMusic.  Many, many local classical music stations payed homage to her on Friday.  Sadly, no top American orchestra has programmed her works for this season, although the Albany Symphony will perform her Concerto as part of the two-day festival, January 11-12, 2020.  Like the image of Clara that we used above?  Buy the poster at Music Theory Examples by Women!

NPR continues to explore the impact of women in jazz and popular music – this past week looking at the contributions of Mary Lou Williams.  Listen to a playlist of her works here, learn how she influenced the Big Band Era, listen to how she “swung the band“, her tremendous work to advocate for jazz, and how she used her home to nurture the next generation.

Musicologist Joseph Horowitz discusses Dvořák’s call to incorporate more music from African American traditions in American music, and why that incorporation never came to fruition.  Read on here.

And congratulations go to Anthony Parnther, who was just announced as conductor for the San Bernardino Symphony, and who is well aware of the significance of holding said position as a Black man.  The Los Angeles Times has the story.

So much is going on!  We are always looking for guest authors! Be in touch at [email protected]!