February WORKSHOP with Jamie Allen

Music by Black Composers (MBC), the brainchild of virtuoso violinist Rachel Barton Pine, was born from the realization that young musicians learning classical music seldom, if ever, have the opportunity to study and perform music written by Black composers. This omission silences a rich vein of musical creation. MBC supplements the current instrumental training methods with collections of music exclusively by Black composers from around the world. During my tenure as Education Director for the Dallas Symphony, I became aware of this series and added it to the curriculum for our string instruction program. I also reached out to Ms. Pine and asked her permission to arrange some of the works for recorder, which she graciously granted (her daughter, as it turns out, is an enthusiastic recorder student herself!) The selections we will look at in this class include both familiar works, such as Joplin's "The Entertainer," as well as less familiar ones, such as Amadeo Roldán's haunting "Canción de Cuna".