Composers Undine Smith Moore, Valerie Capers, Zenobia Powell Perry, Mable Bailey, and Dorothy Rudd Moore
Professor of Piano Pedagogy听Alejandro Cremaschi and his students are uncovering a neglected group of composers rarely visible in the world of classical piano music. Their听new project, 鈥�Hidden Voices鈥� explores the performance and pedagogical potential of piano compositions from 19th听and 20th听century African American women composers whose music is preserved in the at the American Music Research Center on the CU Boulder campus.听听Funded by an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Award, this student-driven project reflects on the importance and impact of diverse voices, cultures, and social environments among classical piano artists and aspires to bring their music to light within the CU community and beyond.
Students are illuminating听the work of these marginalized composers by researching, analyzing, and recording their music from primary source materials found in the collection and听posting performance videos and articles about the composers on the project鈥檚 Wiki site. 听Researchers Reina Krumvieda, Indigo Farmer, Anastasiia Pavlenko, and Boheng Wang,听pictured below, are among the first听College of Music piano students to work on Hidden Voices.听听
鈥淚 liked working with primary source materials, but it was challenging not to have other peoples' interpretations to rely on,鈥� said Indigo Farmer, who helped launch the project. 鈥淗aving only the primary source forces you to be creative and interpret things yourself, and that means that sometimes you are inaccurate. 听It was a challenge to read the music, some of it was handwritten, and the tonal language of my composer, Lettie Beckon Alston, was unfamiliar to me. It was a great experience to become familiar with another composer's style.鈥�
Students first heard the music听by sight-reading scores on a traveling digital keyboard and headphones听placed inside Norlin Library鈥檚 Special Collections Reading Room, a quiet space where collection materials--like these compositions and manuscripts--are accessible to anyone.听
Anastasiia Povlenko reflected, 鈥淕oing through compositions, realizing that I am one of a few people who had a chance to take a close look at them, and analyzing those compositions to raise awareness of their existence for others has definitely given me goosebumps a couple of times.鈥澨鼳nd, Boheng Wang听expressed, 鈥淚 have learned a lot about analyzing music from a pedagogical perspective and figuring out what the composer might want to express through the music based on their background.鈥�
鈥淎s a mixed-race woman it was very meaningful to learn more in depth about fellow minority female composers and pianists,鈥� notes Reina Krumveida, whose Hidden Voices research was featured听in the听 earlier this year.听鈥淚 was able to learn about their life experiences in detail, some of which I could relate to as a result of my own experiences as a woman minority.鈥� 听
Professor Cremeschi, pictured right,听indicated that the project has barely scratched the surface听in understanding how racial issues are present in the lives of these composers. 听
He听explained, 鈥淶enobia Powell Perry, for example, was involved in the civil rights movement, and, as a young girl she met Booker T. Washington and befriended Eleanor Roosevelt. 听And, there鈥檚 Undine Smith Moore, who composed the Cantata, 'Scenes from the Life of a Martyr'听in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.听听Some of these musicians stood up against being labeled simplistically. 听You have Undine Moore, for example, who said 鈥榖lack music is a house of many mansions. 听Blacks have many musics and some of them relate in an extremely universal way to the human condition.鈥�"
"Others felt their gender and skin color often created preconceptions; for example, Eleanor Alberga, when asked [to describe] her greatest frustration or challenge during an interview, said 鈥榯wo things: issues of race and gender in as much as they have defined me in the minds of others,鈥欌�� added Cremaschi.
Hidden Voices contributors hope听that pianists and teachers everywhere will learn about these compositions and start teaching and performing them.听