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News Release

Last modified: Wednesday, February 16, 2005

‘Extensions of the Tradition’ concert presents works by African American composers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The Indiana University African American Arts Institute, in collaboration with the IU School of Music and the Archives of African American Music and Culture, presents the musical concert, "Extensions of the Tradition," on Feb. 27 at 5 p.m. in the Recital Hall of the IU School of Music.

In celebration of the African American Arts Institute's 30th anniversary year (2004-2005), the concert will feature works by composers who have been involved with the institute, including David N. Baker, William C. Banfield, Sonia Morales-Matos, James E. Mumford, Coleridge Taylor Perkinson and Undine Smith Moore. The concert is free and open to the public.

The Extensions of the Tradition recital series was established by Banfield in 1988 at the University of Michigan to publicly present works by African American composers. Since 1993, the series has been presented at IU Bloomington as a partnership among the School of Music, the African American Arts Institute and the Archives of African American Music.

This year's program will consist of a diverse collection of solo and small ensemble pieces performed by IU music students, including:

• A premier performance of Baker's Sonata for Flute and Piano, second movement, adapted for flute from his Sonata for Clarinet and Piano. Baker is a distinguished professor of music in the School of Music, chair of the Department of Jazz Studies and adjunct professor of African American and African Diaspora studies.
• Selections from Mumford's Ghetto Suite for voice, piano and flute. Mumford directs the institute's African American Choral Ensemble.
• Banfield's The Prophetess II for voice and piano. Banfield was director of the IU Soul Revue from 1992-1997. He now holds an endowed chair in humanities and fine arts and directs the American Cultural Studies program at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
• Divertimento Caribeño by Morales-Matos for soprano saxophone and piano. A native of Puerto Rico, Morales-Matos is a graduate of the School of Music, with a degree in composition and jazz studies. She is the former instrumental coach for the Choral Ensemble.
• Perkinson's Sonata a'La Barogue for flute. Perkinson, visiting director of the IU Soul Revue from 1997-98, was artistic director of the performance program at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago at the time of his death last March.
• The concert will conclude with the African American Choral Ensemble's performance of selections from Smith Moore's Nobel Prize-nominated oratorio, Scenes from the Life of a Martyr, conducted by Mumford. Smith Moore, who died in 1989, established the Undine Smith Moore Collection of Original Scores and Manuscripts of Black Composers at IU's Archives of African American Music and Culture to preserve the artistic and historical importance of music written by composers of African descent.

The concert's theme, Extensions of the Tradition, refers to artistic expressions that are linked to a long history of African American composers. These composers speak in several "musical tongues," which civil rights leader W.E.B Du Bois once said exist "in a double consciousness" of European- and African-derived artistic traditions. This year's concert will highlight this fusion of European art music, traditional African music, spirituals, blues and jazz.

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