John Michael Cooper
MARGARET BONDS, LANGSTON HUGHES, AND THE JOY OF “JOY”:
A Conspirare Premiere and a Gratuitous Youthful Photo Langston Hughes’s poem Joy was first published in the collection The Weary Blues...
top of page
Search
John Michael Cooper
- Feb 22
- 5 min
A FATHER-DAUGHTER GIFT FOR TODAY
The Margaret Bonds / W.E.B. Du Bois Credo Returns to Its Roots Margaret Bonds’s relationship with her father was complicated but rich –...
142 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 11, 2022
- 2 min
A MOST AUSPICIOUS OCCASION
The world premiere of the “revised and extended” version of Margaret Bonds’s The Ballad of the Brown King (December 11, 1960) HISTORY WAS...
10 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Nov 19, 2022
- 4 min
MARGARET BONDS: “NO MAN HAS SEEN HIS FACE” (1968)
Fifty-one-year-old Owen Brady was found unconscious and riddled with bullets inside a wrecked and burning car that had crashed into the...
74 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Nov 11, 2022
- 4 min
COALESCENCE, CULMINATION, AND EMANCIPATION:
Four Early Performances of Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite [This note is about Margaret Bonds’s Spiritual Suite – the surviving magnum...
14 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Nov 1, 2022
- 3 min
J.S. BACH AND THE HARMONY OF THE SPHERES AT THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY GREENWICH
Pianist Elena Piccione and Romanian Astronomer Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu Enact the Composer’s Worldview on November 4 The notion that all...
13 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jul 1, 2022
- 3 min
“I DEDICATED IT TO MOTHER”
On the Origins of He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand by Margaret Bonds Margaret Bonds is justly celebrated for her inspired and...
115 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jun 20, 2022
- 6 min
ON THE VERY FAMILIAR, AND VERY MYSTERIOUS, SCOTT JOPLIN
[This is the sixth in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
63 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jun 10, 2022
- 5 min
“I NEVER IMAGINED THAT A WOMAN COULD WRITE SUCH MUSIC!”
On the Extraordinary Mel-Bonis (1858-1937) [This is the fifth in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming...
223 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jun 3, 2022
- 2 min
FLORENCE PRICE’S SCENES OF TENEMENT LIFE
Today witnesses the release of 2022’s second[1] milestone in the recorded legacy of Florence B. Price: the world-premiere recording of...
22 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 31, 2022
- 3 min
OF HOPE AND NEW BEGINNINGS
A Commencement Letter from Langston Hughes, Shared with Margaret Bonds We are in an age of marches, of collective protests against...
33 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 28, 2022
- 8 min
ON HARRY T. BURLEIGH, HIS LIFE AND LEGACIES
[This is the fourth in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
163 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 21, 2022
- 5 min
ON DORA PEJAČEVIĆ (1885-1923)
[This is the third in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
55 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 17, 2022
- 2 min
ON JAMES MONROE TROTTER AND HIS "MUSIC AND SOME HIGHLY MUSICAL PEOPLE" (Part 2)
[This is the second in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
13 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 17, 2022
- 3 min
ON JAMES MONROE TROTTER AND HIS "MUSIC AND SOME HIGHLY MUSICAL PEOPLE" (Part 1)
[This is the first in a series of posts of “blogified” short entries from the forthcoming second, enlarged edition of my Historical...
62 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 1, 2022
- 4 min
“UNIVERSITIES, UNIVERSITIES, UNIVERSITIES!” (1)
The Conservatory of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Brings Margaret Bonds’s Civil-Rights Credo to the Home of Dred Scott’s...
42 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Apr 23, 2022
- 3 min
THE VOICE OF MARGARET BONDS
Reflecting on Her Recorded Interview with James V. Hatch Most commentaries on Margaret Bonds either quote or refer to this passage: I was...
237 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 29, 2022
- 4 min
THREE IN D.C.
The Voice of Margaret Bonds Rises in Three Events in the U.S. Capital This Weekend The estimable Margaret Bonds’s (1913-72) musical...
35 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 19, 2022
- 3 min
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF FLORENCE PRICE’S FIRST CHORAL-ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION
The Song of Hope sounds at Ithaca College under the baton of Michael Stern [This post is occasioned by the world première of Florence B....
316 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Feb 12, 2022
- 3 min
SINCE 1973
On Tuesday, February 15, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. CT, the internationally heralded GRAMMY-winning chorus Conspirare, conducted by...
99 views0 comments
bottom of page