Black History Month 2024
All Classical Radio is proud to celebrate the music of Black artists year-round and during the month of February. We are shining a special spotlight on the extraordinary contributions to classical music by Black composers and performers.
Read on to learn about the special programming coming up this month on All Classical Radio. Listen at 89.9 FM in Portland or worldwide from anywhere via the live player on our website.
PROGRAMMING & MORE
- ON AIR – Throughout the month, All Classical Radio’s programming will include works written and performed by Black composers and musicians, including Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, Damien Geter, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Adam Eccleston, Jimmie Herrod, Margaret Bonds, and more.
- THURSDAYS @ THREE – On Thursday, February 8 at 3:00 PM PT, host Christa Wessel welcomes Cappella Romana and Kingdom Sound, one of the Northwest’s top Gospel choirs, with a preview their upcoming Black Voices concert, featuring African American composers, poets, and hymnographers. Plus, pianist Thomas Otten will share music by American composer Leslie Adams. Learn more.
- NORTHWEST PREVIEWS – On Friday, February 9 at 8:00 AM PT, host Andrea Murray will share an exclusive preview of Cappella Romana’s program “How Sweet the Sound,” a collaboration with Kingdom Sound, celebrating Black Voices in Orthodox Music.
- PLAYED IN OREGON – On Sunday, February 11 at 1:00 PM PT, host Brandi Parisi will feature recent performances by Grammy®-nominated baritone Will Liverman and Chamber Music Northwest, of works by Florence Price, and more. Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), Liverman took the Metropolitan Opera by storm last fall as Charles in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.
PAST/ARCHIVE
- ON AIR – On Thursday, February 1, during the dinner hour, host John Burk featured music and performances by William Grant Still, Duke Ellington, pianist Lara Downes, and others.
- THURSDAYS @ THREE –
- NORTHWEST PREVIEWS – On Friday, February 2, host Andrea Murray spoke to renowned Grammy® Award-winning pianist Michelle Cann about her performance with Portland Piano International. The program features music by women composers of the Chicago Black Renaissance, a prolific period of artistic experimentation and community building that blossomed in the city’s South Side during the Great Migration. Listen in the Audio Archive until February 16, 2024.
- THE SCORE – On Saturday, February 3 at 2:00 PM PT, host Edmund Stone will share an exclusive interview with one of the greatest composers in cinema today: seven-time Grammy® Award-winner and two-time Oscar nominee Terence Blanchard. Plus, hear highlights from Terence’s film scores for ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ ‘The Woman King,’ ‘BlackkKlansman,’ and more. Hear a special encore of this episode on February 11, or listen on-demand at thescore.org until February 17, 2024.
RECORDING INCLUSIVITY INITIATIVE
In 2021, All Classical Radio launched the Recording Inclusivity Initiative (RII) to address the gap of classical music composers and musicians from underrepresented communities in concert halls and radio airwaves.
In October 2022, GRAMMY® award-winning Navona Records released RII’s first-ever album, AMPLIFY, featuring all-new recordings of works by All Classical Radio composers in residence Lauren McCall, Jasmine Barnes, and Keyla Orozco. AMPLIFY also includes two posthumous works by Mélanie Hélène Bonis (1858-1937) and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004).
Listen to the album radio launch party on our Arts Blog.
AMPLIFY is now available for purchase in the All Classical Portland Gift Shop.
Learn more at recordinginclusivity.allclassical.org.
RECOMMENDED READING
- 2023: Celebrate Black History Month with All Classical Portland – blog post by Rebecca Richardson, Music Researcher & Digital Producer
- 2023: Five Black Musicians Who Changed the World of Music – blog post on the International Children’s Arts Network’s website
- 2022: Black Renaissance Woman: Meet Musicologist-Pianist Samantha Ege – conversation with Dr. Samantha Ege of Oxford University, one of the world’s foremost specialists on Florence Price
- 2022: Exploring Black Art History – blog post on ICANradio.org
- 2021: Nine Black Women Who Changed Opera Forever – blog post by Emma Riggle
