Tag Archives: University of Michigan

Thomas Jefferson Anderson, II: American Composer Turns 90 This Year


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T. J. Anderson (1928- )

Born in Coatsville, PA August 17, 1928 Thomas Jefferson Anderson, Jr. is an American composer, conductor and teacher.  He earned a B.A. in music from West Virginia State College in 1950  and an M. Ed. in music education from Pennsylvania State University in 1951.  He studied at the esteemed Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1954 and earned a Ph. D. in music from the University of Iowa in 1958.  He subsequently also studied with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen School of Music in 1964.

I first encountered his name in the American Music series (Volume V) which came out on Nonesuch records.  His work, Variations on a Theme by M. B. Tolson (1969) was paired with works by Anderson’s contemporaries Milton Babbitt and Richard Wernick.  I later encountered his  Squares (1965) for orchestra on volume 8 of the wonderful Black Composers series (released 1975 on Columbia Records) curated by the late great Paul Freeman.  The same disc contained works by Olly Woodrow Wilson and Talib Rasul Hakim.  (That entire 9 volume set remains available on vinyl in a nice box set through the College Music Society and distributed by Amazon for only $55.00)

Anderson was awarded an appointment as composer in residence with the Atlanta Symphony beginning in 1968 and ending in 1972.  This coincided with the beginning of Robert Shaw’s tenure as conductor.  Shaw’s affinity for contemporary music (including black composers like Anderson and Alvin Singleton).  Anderson prepared a performing version of Scott Joplin’s only extant opera Treemonisha resulting in the first full staging of that 1911 work (premiered by Shaw with the Atlanta Symphony and broadcast via NPR) during this time and premiered several of his own works with the orchestra along with his educational and outreach duties.

His teaching appointments have included Langston University in Oklahoma, Tennessee State University, Morehouse College, Tufts University, the University of Minnesota, California State University, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and Ohio State University.  He is as of 2005 a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and is the recipient of a long list of honors.  Dr. Anderson is the author of numerous academic publications and is the past chairman (1972-76) of the Black Music Caucus which is now known as the National Association for the Study and Performance of African/American Music (NASPAM).

Sadly his discography is rather limited (discogs lists only five) but there is a wonderful set of download links on the composer’s web site where you can download complete recordings of no fewer than 37 of his works as of the time of this writing.  Trust me this is a cornucopia with recordings from about 1974 to as recently as 2006.  Here’s hoping that his large catalog of compositions can get the attention they deserve in the near future.  His works include solo, chamber, orchestral, concerto, choral, art song, opera and other arrangements and orchestrations.

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Dr. Anderson lives in Chapel Hill, NC with his family (his son Thomas Jefferson Anderson, III is a poet and professor at Hollins University in Virginia).  He will be turning 90 at the end of this summer.

 

 

 

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The Three Black Counter Tenors, An Historic First


The original incarnation of three classical singers with the same range performing as an act was that of the late Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.  I seem to remember a similar act with three Irish tenors that followed on their model.  Well what we have here is a far more unusual and very historically significant collection of three counter tenors, that voice range of male falsettos roughly corresponding to mezzo-soprano in range.  This is certainly one of the least common type of vocal artist but what makes this a unique historical event is that all three are African-Americans (to use the currently politically correct term).  They’re not performing as an act, though.  They are all starring in a single opera which makes this event even more compelling.

Darryl Taylor

Darryl Taylor

This will happen in the context of performances of Henry Purcell’s 1689 opera, “Dido and Aeneas” in Los Angeles.  I include this in this new music blog because it is certainly a new occurrence and it fits well with my ongoing survey which has looked at black composers since the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Of course this event puts the focus on black performers, an area which I have not attempted to explore.  But is is nice to see this happening in the 50th anniversary year of that landmark legislation.

I only came upon this information when a highly valued friend based in Oakland, Bill Doggett, who is acting as a consultant to the L.A. Opera alerted me to this historic first.  He recently curated a well received exhibition in the Grand Foyer at the San Francisco Opera at the performances of Porgy and Bess.  Bill is a concert producer, strategic marketer, consultant, arts advocate and lecturer whose work promotes black classical artists.  It was he that suggested that this event would fit with the themes developed in my previous blogs.  I did share with Mr. Doggett my experience seeing Mary Zimmerman’s beautiful production of Philip Glass’ Akhenaten in Chicago which featured a black counter tenor named Geoffrey Scott whose name, sadly, seems to have disappeared from the web except for that production.  What was curious about that is that I vividly recall the audience’s reaction when he first came on stage.  It is perhaps more historically accurate to cast a black man as an Egyptian Pharaoh but the audience seemed shocked by his appearance and I didn’t feel that it was just because of his vocal range.

John Holiday

John Holiday

The three singers in this new production include John Holiday, Darryl Taylor and G. Thomas Allen all of whom are making their début performances with L.A. Opera.  Holiday, who will sing the role of the sorceress was the third place winner in this year’s Operalia, a competition founded by  Placido Domingo for singers aged 18-32.  Taylor and Allen will sing the roles of the witches in a production which, as far as I can tell will be the first time three black counter tenors will be appearing on an opera stage  in  the history of the art form.  Taylor is a voice teacher on faculty at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor  and Allen appears to be a rising star whose art we will see at an early point in his career.

Correction: Darryl Taylor is now Associate Professor of voice at Claire Trevor School of the Arts  University of California,Irvine.

G. Thomas Allen

G. Thomas Allen

This performance will be a double bill with the other half of the program being a production of Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle.  The productions will run from October 25th to November 15th.  Below I am sharing the press release of this historic event.  One hopes that this historic first will shed a more sympathetic light in these embattled times where, in spite of such wonderful historic performances, we endure a correspondingly negative series of news events like those in Ferguson, MO, New York and so many other places where the value of black lives seems to be at a very low ebb.3CountertenormediaNEW.doggett

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