The Black Chicago Renaissance Women: Lives and Legacies in Music | Dr. Samantha Ege

Held on International Women's Day 2021, Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future, Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities - in collaboration with Lincoln College, Oxford. Talk and Performance from Dr Samantha Ege, Lincoln College Oxford.

In celebration of International Women’s Day (8 March 2021), Dr. Samantha Ege presents an hour-long lecture-recital. Therein, she traces the lives and legacies of Black women composers in Chicago. The music of Florence B. Price, Nora Douglas Holt, Margaret Bonds, and Betty Jackson King represents the foundations of a vibrant creative network. Dr. Ege contextualises this in the transformative movement of the Negro Renaissance.

Programme:



Florence B. Price (1887-1953)

Fantasie Nègre No. 2 in G minor (1932)
Fantasie Nègre No. 3 in F minor (1932)



Nora Douglas Holt (c.1885-1974)

Negro Dance (1921)



Betty Jackson King (1928-1994)

Four Seasonal Sketches (1955)

I. Spring Intermezzo

II. Summer Interlude

III. Autumn Dance

IV. Winter Holiday



Margaret Bonds (1913-1972)

Spiritual Suite (1967)

I. Valley of the Bones

II. The Bells

III. Troubled Water

Dr. Samantha Ege is Lord Crewe Junior Research Fellow in Music at Lincoln College. Her research focuses on Florence B. Price and the network of female practitioners in the age of the Black Chicago Renaissance. She released the album Four Women: Music for Solo Piano by Price, Kaprálová, Bilsland and Bonds with Wave Theory Records in 2018.

Dr. Ege's new album Fantasie Nègre: The Piano Music of Florence Price will be released digitally on the LORELT label on Monday 8 March to coincide with the celebration of International Women's Day.
This event is kindly supported by Lincoln College, Oxford, Lord Crewe’s Charity and the Zilkha Trust.