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Black History Month YP | 2024 Choral and Instrumental Pieces

Each Sunday in February, the Yorkminster Park choir and carillonneur will present choral and instrumental pieces by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Florence Price, David Hurd and spirituals as arranged by Dvorak, Copland and Shephard.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was born in London to an English mother and a father from Sierra Leone. He became a composition student of Stanford at the Royal Academy of Music, and was highly regarded as a composer, so much so that the orchestral musicians of New York referred to him as the ‘African Mahler', both for his compositions and gifts as a conductor. His oratorio, "Hiawatha" was frequently performed throughout the English-speaking world until the late 1930's and was considered third in popularity behind performances of Messiah and Elijah.

Florence Beatrice Price (1887-1953) was an American classical composer, pianist, organist and music teacher.[2] Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Price was educated at the New England Conservatory of Music and was active in Chicago from 1927 until her death in 1953. Price is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.[3] Price composed over 300 works: four symphonies, four concertos, as well as choral works, art songs, chamber music and music for solo instruments.

Dr. David Hurd (born 1950) was Professor of Sacred Music and Director of Chapel Music at the General Theological Seminary, Chelsea, New York City, for 39 years. He was also the Music Director at the Church of the Holy Apostles, also in Chelsea, until May 2013. He is presently the Director of Music at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (Manhattan) in Times Square, New York City.

Hurd's sacred compositions can be found in many hymnals, including the Episcopal Hymnal, 1982. Hurd is one of the world's most visible and successful classical organists who is African-American.

YPBC Black History Month | 2024 > 

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