Composers
Lil Lite O' Mine
This CD features works by six French composers: Fauré, Chaminade,
Debussy, Busser, Sancan and Satie. Mozart and Schubert worked in Vienna,
while Chopin grew up in Poland but spent much of his adult life in France.
Fenboque was a flutist with the Cincinnati Symphony from 1938-1559.
The Hailstork is an original work, while the Perkinson and McDaniel
pieces are arrangements of Negro spirituals. Extensive biographical
information for Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Foster McDaniel
and Adolphus Hailstork can be found online at the Center for Black Music
Research (CBMR), Columbia College Chicago. (http://www.cmbr.org).
Henri-Paul Busser (1872-1973) studied at the
Paris Conservatory and won the second Premier Prix de Rome in 1893.
He became choirmaster at the Opéra-Comique in 1892, and was conductor
of the Grand Opéra from 1903-1939 and after the war. Busser taught
composition at the Paris Conservatory from 1930-1948.
Pierre Sancan (b. 1916) studied at the Meknès
College of Music, Toulouse Conservatory and the Paris Conservatory,
where his composition teacher was Henri Busser. He won the Prix de Rome
in 1943 and taught piano at the Paris Conservatory from 1956-1985. Sancan
wrote three ballets, an opera and symphonic music as well as solo and
chamber works.
Adophus Hailstork (b.1941) received degrees
from Howard University, the Manhattan School of Music and Michigan State
University. His works have been performed by many leading ensembles,
including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia
Orchestra, Detroit and Baltimore Symphonies, Opera Theatre of St. Louis,
Kansas City Lyric Opera and the Boys Choir of Harlem. His awards include
the Belwin-Mills Max Winkler Award presented by the Band Director's
National Association, the Ernest Bloch Award for choral composition
and First Prize by the University of Delaware Festival of Contemporary
Music. Dr. Hailstork taught at Norfolk State University in Virginia
(1977-2000) and is now Eminent Scholar and Professor of Music at Old
Dominion University in Virginia.
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1932-2004) earned
his BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music. He composed and conducted
scores for a number of theatrical, television and documentary feature
films and composed and arranged for jazz and popular artists including
Harry Belefonte and Marvin Gaye. His classical works have been recorded
by the Chicago Sinfonietta, Moravian Philharmonic and various soloists.
He conducted orchestras all over the world and served as music director
or composer-in-residence for the Negro Ensemble Company, Alvin Ailey
Dance Company, Dance Theatre of Harlem and various theatre groups. He
was co-founder of the Symphony of the New World.
William Foster McDaniel (b.1940) graduated
from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio and Boston University, then
studied in Paris as a Fulbright Scholar. He has written six concerti,
five sonatas, several art song collections and solo works, and has conducted
Broadway, off-Broadway and touring company shows (The Fantasticks, Ain't
Misbehavin', Timbuktu, Bubbling Brown Sugar and many others). He is
also a solo and chamber pianist.