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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 –...

John Michael Cooper
Feb 22, 20235 min read
148 views
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A HISTORIC RE-ENACTMENT
Margaret Bonds’s Montomery Variations and Credo on the Same Program with the Hartford Chorale and Hartford Symphony Orchestra Margaret...

John Michael Cooper
Feb 19, 20233 min read
98 views
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A COMPOSITIONAL COLLABORATION(?) BETWEEN MARGARET BONDS AND FLORENCE PRICE
Sleep Song (text by Joyce Kilmer) Have you ever been in a crowd or out in public and heard a voice that you immediately recognize, even...

John Michael Cooper
Jan 20, 20236 min read
155 views
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JOLLY JINKS WITH FLORENCE PRICE
Twenty Years Down the Road, a Great Composer Revisits an Early Work and Asks, “What’s in a Name?” There aren’t many students of...

John Michael Cooper
Jan 7, 20236 min read
90 views
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FLORENCE PRICE’S MOTHER AND FATHER SUED THE RAILROAD FOR DISCRIMINATION
Speaking Truth to Power In the late nineteenth century, the railroads were the primary means for shipping goods and materials quickly,...

John Michael Cooper
Dec 20, 20223 min read
56 views
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A MEMORIAL PERFORMANCE FOR FLORENCE B. PRICE
The Second Violin Concerto in 1953 It’s generally said that Florence Price’s moving and innovative Second Violin Concerto was premiered...

John Michael Cooper
Dec 12, 20222 min read
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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...

John Michael Cooper
Dec 11, 20222 min read
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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...

John Michael Cooper
Nov 19, 20224 min read
79 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
Nov 11, 20224 min read
110 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
Nov 1, 20223 min read
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“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...

John Michael Cooper
Jul 1, 20223 min read
126 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
Jun 20, 20226 min read
185 views
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“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...

John Michael Cooper
Jun 10, 20225 min read
428 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
Jun 3, 20222 min read
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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...

John Michael Cooper
May 31, 20223 min read
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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...

John Michael Cooper
May 28, 20228 min read
430 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
May 21, 20225 min read
227 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
May 17, 20222 min read
50 views
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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...

John Michael Cooper
May 17, 20223 min read
122 views
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“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...

John Michael Cooper
May 1, 20224 min read
45 views
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