John Michael Cooper
SEQUINA DUBOSE: FROM “BLURRED LINES,” A MESSAGE CRYSTAL CLEAR (pt. 1 of 2)
In some ways, the year 2023 was a year of revanchism and regression in classical music. Just a few years earlier, many voices –...
top of page
Search
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 24, 2023
- 4 min
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...
289 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...
37 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....
403 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...
100 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Feb 4, 2022
- 4 min
CELEBRATING A FLORENCE PRICE COMPOSITION THAT DIDN’T WIN
Lady Jess and Ric’key Pageot Record the Recently Published Andante con espressione for Violin and Piano The Summer of 1926 was important...
141 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 27, 2021
- 7 min
A MOST AUGUST OCCASION
And a Most August Album and Edition, on the Bicentennial of Pauline Viardot-García Few musical dynasties compare to the one that included...
172 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 16, 2021
- 5 min
“THE THREE WISE MEN”:
A Seasonal Blessing in Word and Song from the Pen of W.E.B. Du Bois (1913) W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was a male womanist as well as an...
50 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 13, 2021
- 2 min
TWO POSTHUMOUS REVIVALS OF MARGARET BONDS AND LANGSTON HUGHES: AFRICAN DANCE (Danse africaine)
Performances by Greg Watkins and Members of the CAAPA Chorale, November 14, 2021; and Anton Nel and Members of Conspirare, February 15,...
129 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 8, 2021
- 6 min
ARE WOMEN PEOPLE?
An Important New Album from Composer Lori Laitman “Settles the Question” I’m not a reviewer – I’m just a musicologist who’s deeply,...
184 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 3, 2021
- 2 min
OUR PROMISES TO THE WORLD
A Teacher Bids a Fond Farewell (for now) to His Fine Students and an Adventurous Course [Background: Yesterday was the last regular class...
26 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Aug 28, 2021
- 4 min
FLORENCE PRICE V. LANGSTON HUGHES AT THE “FEET O’ JESUS”
Langston Hughes’s relationship with the Christian church was . . . complicated. Except that it wasn’t. While he acknowledged that the...
396 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Aug 5, 2021
- 2 min
“YOU GIVE ME A LIFT”
A Song Lyric by Margaret Bonds Margaret Bonds traveled nearly constantly in her adult life. Even though she maintained a single address...
30 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jul 10, 2021
- 3 min
LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH POEMS:
MARGARET BONDS, EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, AND LANGSTON HUGHES* * (WITH A CAMEO BY DEBUSSY AND PIERRE LOUŸS) The long, close, and...
57 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 7, 2021
- 3 min
THE BEAUTY OF BLACKNESS
Florence B. Price’s “Night” (Text by Bessie Mayle) The poetry, music, and other artworks of the Harlem Renaissance and Chicago Black...
181 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Aug 30, 2020
- 4 min
#SONGSOFCOMFORT:
A new and consciously LIVE music video of Margaret Bonds's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" offers a fresh look at her musical world.
54 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jul 30, 2020
- 3 min
WHEN THE DOVE ENTERS IN
The newly recovered gospel song "When the Dove Enters In" by Margaret Bonds & Langston Hughes delivers a symbolic message for our own time.
1,298 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jul 26, 2020
- 5 min
OF COMFORT, TRAUMA, AND MUSIC
A new series of videos featuring music of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds shows music's ability to bring comfort and beauty amidst trauma.
251 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jul 20, 2020
- 2 min
TESTIMONY: A #BLACKLIVESMATTER MANIFESTO
41 readers ages 5-81 voice their support for #BlackLivesMatter in a collaborative reading of a Civil Rights manifesto by W.E.B. Du Bois.
59 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- May 24, 2020
- 4 min
SILENCE AND SOUND
Margaret Bonds's little-known settings of Robert Frost's well-known "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" teach important lessons.
184 views0 comments
bottom of page