Reality Check 2: Living in the Moment

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Coffee with Kofi: Espresso Hot-Chocolate, homemade.

Today I learned about William Grant Still (1895-1978). He studied music composition at the Oberlin Conservatory before moving to New York City; a rite of passage for most musical careers at the turn of the century. He became the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in this country, the first to conduct a major orchestra in the deep South, the first to conduct a radio orchestra in New York City, the first composer whose opera was televised over a national network, and the first to have an opera produced by a major company in the United States, Troubled Island c. 1949. It has never been performed again.

Despite these pioneering efforts, his presence in the orchestral music scene wasn't and still isn't preferential in standardized classical programming. After being rejected by the Metropolitan Opera, which has to this day never performed a work by an African-American composer, he began to focus exclusively on chamber music. I've actually performed a piece by him, Summerland for wind ensemble.

Today, I heard his granddaughter perform.

Celeste Headlee, a lyric alto and Detroit NPR correspondent, performed several of Still's art songs in the West Building Lecture Hall at the National Gallery of Art in a concert series honoring African-American History. Art songs are performed as mini movements without applause until the end of a cycle of four to six songs. Typically art songs are collaborations between vocalists and pianists offering composers' music to libretto, or prepared text.

Friends from DC Twenties, a collegiate social group.

Although most of Still's works were composed for a soprano, Headlee chose works that were executable for an alto with an extended range. I fell more in love with her emotional intent than with her artistry. It was obvious that maybe some of the songs should really have been performed by a soprano. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the intermittent discussion about the composer with whose style merged staunch classicism's strict form and functionality with the raw emotion in Afro-American themes.

For each art song Celeste completely changed her character and lived in the moment. I felt that this was most represented by Still's accompaniment to Poeme by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin.

Poeme

Dawn had not yet broke,
but I arose,
rubbing my eyes.
'Round about all were sleeping.
The banana trees beneath my window
shivered in the calm moonlight.
Then, I took my head in my hands
and thought of you.

"Living in the moment" is now my motto. It has been a struggle to ignore precariousness and worry about my future.

Poeme is so simple, and so relevant. The character is just enjoying the moment in what seems like a very relaxed atmosphere; they're thinking about his/her loved one. Just this past week I've witnessed a lot of artists just living in the moment: Alvin Ailey: American Dance Company, the 21st Century Chamber Players, and today's gallery concert with Celeste Headlee. You know there's tons of stimulation here in DC. I also went to my ballet class as usual at the Capitol Hill Workshop, an Arts Career Fair at Studio Theatre, a lecture on the African-American and Latino Vote int he 2008 Presidential Election at the Center for American Progress Action Fund and I heard Kevin Klose, the President of NPR speak to TWC students. Whew!

Dancing with a few classmates after Ballet Technique at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.

DC has made me "think in the moment" about my future plans. It's not that I was completely decided before and now I've experienced an earth shattering intervention; it's just that now I'm more aware my true interests, dislikes, talents, challenges, and aptitudes. I have been required to completely be responsible for myself while I've been interning at the National Endowment for the Arts and form my own existence, here, in DC.

…my cup is empty.