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Artists Expanding the Classical Landscape
This Black History Month, Classical California recognize a group of Black composers, performers, and musical leaders whose work reflects today’s classical landscape. Their contributions, spanning contemporary composition, performance, conducting, and genre‑crossing artistic practices, demonstrate the many ways Black musicians continue to influence and expand the field. Together, these artists offer perspectives that enrich the concert experience and underscore the ongoing evolution of classical music. Listen to their Classical Californian's program to hear their favorite works.
Kedrick Armstrong
Kedrick Armstrong is the Music Director and Conductor of Oakland Symphony. His selections include works by Mahler and Poulenc, a Traditional Spiritual arranged by one of his teachers, and two works by Black composers that had a profound impression on him, William Banfield and Irene Britton Smith.
Jon Batiste
Lara Downes and Jon Batiste
Jon Batiste's selections include Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Handel’s Messiah, and performances by the great pianist Guiomar Novaes.
Kris Bowers
Kris Bowers has written the music for the films Chevalier, Green Book and the show Bridgerton. He's selected an interesting lineup of music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Jessie Montgomery, Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges), Gabriella Smith, and more.
Raynor Carroll
Raynor Carroll, who was a longtime Principal Percussionist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In recent years, he's founded the Alliance of Black Orchestral Percussionists (ABOP) which offers mentorship and support for young and emerging Black percussionists hoping to play in an orchestral setting. He's chosen a line-up of works that inspired him and spurred his love for music with a rhythmic drive.
Regina Carter
Jazz violinist Regina Carter shares some of the music that’s accompanied her from when she was a four-year-old violin student to where she is today. That includes some of the pioneers of the jazz violin, including Eddie South and Ray Nance, along with a couple of takes on a Debussy.
Adrian Dunn
With his vocal ensemble The Adrian Dunn Singers, and the instrumentalists of his Rize Orchestra, he's building on the tradition of American spirituals, bringing their message into our contemporary world. He and his ensembles will be recording an album called "Believe" in a live performance at the Zipper Concert Hall in Los Angeles on February 15th.
Derrick Skye
LA-based composer, conductor and performer Derrick Skye. He has a lineup of works for us that are both meditative and thought-provoking including Hildegard von Bingen, solo works for viola and guitar, a piece for cello and string quartet that's inspired by traditional Indian classical music, and a piece for orchestra and soprano that Skye wrote as a companion piece to Brahms’ German Requiem.
RZA
RZA, the rap and hip-hop producer who was a founder of the Wu-Tang Clan. He plays pieces from his ballet, A Ballet Through Mud, as well as works from the classical and film music repertoire that influenced him in his own music making.
Althea Waites
Pianist Althea Waites is based in LA. The selections she’s chosen to share this week include a performance that reminds her of a brush with greatness she had on a cold night in the 1960s, a fateful symphony by Tchaikovsky that helped save her life, a late work by Beethoven that she waited to learn, and a Verdi selection that’s both operatic and reflective.
Vincent Womack
The music director at Foshay Learning Center is Vincent Womack. He shares important music and stories from his life experiences, from performing in the 1984 Olympics to being the on-screen conductor in the movie The Last Repair Shop. His selections range from Aaron Copland, to Joseph Bologne, to Derrick Skye.
