MIDTOWN AFFAIR AND MIST OVER MANHATTAN (1958) Margaret Bonds was immersed in the theater from her youth to the very end of her life. She frequently attended plays and wrote about them; she wrote music for plays; she wrote music for musicals – from the fourteen-number incidental music for the Federal Theater Project’s Romey and Julie (1936) to her twenty-two number musical Bitter Laurel , based on the life of Elizabeth Keckley (1818-1907) (1968-69); and the last three and a h

Florence Price’s Rainbow Waltz and the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert [UPDATED 2/15/26] It’s been a while since I’ve had time to blog because work on the world premiere of Margaret Bonds’s late musical on the life of Elizabeth Keckley, Bitter Laurel , has taken all the time and energy I have apart from what’s devoted to my teaching and my beloved family. But since January 2 something else has been knocking at my door, unwilling to go away. So here I am. And I think t