OUT OF THE BLACK BOX: the next music and avant-garde Black composers

Abstract

For the Research on Contemporary Composition conference, I propose giving a lecture recital focusing on the lives, music, and musical philosophies of avant-garde Black composers, highlighting CMOP (Chicago Modern Orchestra Project) founder and director Renee C. Baker. The lecture will be divided into three sections:

I. A brief overview of the Black avant-garde, briefly discussing the music and select musical and personal philosophies of Black avant-garde composers, with music samples. The types of music discussed will span free jazz, minimalism, complexity/simplicity, experimentalism, serialism, music theater, and more. (Approximately 9 minutes)

II. A more in-depth discussion of the creative output of Renee C. Baker: composer, conductor, performer, visual artist. The discussion will include insight into how her life and her myriad of experiences (in the realms of music, visual art, travel, cultural studies, and more) influence her creative output, and how her visual art and music personalities interact with and/or inform each other. Audio clips as well as slides with professional images, music score examples, and visual art samples, will accompany this part of the lecture. (Approximately 6 minutes)

III. A performance/interpretation of a recent work entitle Rage (Approximately 15 minutes). This performance will come directly after a bit of contextualization, and will conclude my 30-minute presentation.

If it is at all possible to allow for questions after the lecture/recital, a Q&A period will be greatly welcome.