Arrive early for this week’s service! Special music before and during our service this Sunday, February 23rd.
Be sure to come to church early this Sunday to enjoy special music beginning at 10:00 a.m.! Guest musicians Christopher Jenkins (viola), Matthew Jones (tenor), and Dianna White-Gould (piano) will be playing and singing before this Sunday’s service, beginning at 10:00. You won’t want to miss a moment of this wonderful music!
Music Notes – Sunday, February 23rd:
This Sunday’s musicians are Linking Legacies (see below for full details) and UUCC Pianist Karin Tooley
While Northeast Ohio’s rich legacy of African American classical music performance and composition is not nationally well-known, during the late 19th and 20th century our area was a hub of activity and training for young Black musicians. During this period, musical training for non-white musicians was only available at a select number of schools, such as Oberlin Conservatory, the Cleveland Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, and Howard University. Composers such as Nathaniel Dett, Hale Smith, Dolores White, H. Leslie Adams, George Walker, and many others were able to pursue musical training at the secondary and conservatory level in Cleveland and the areas surrounding Oberlin Conservatory. An emphasis on racial inclusion was created in part by the prominent role played by certain parts of Ohio in the Underground Railroad, including the towns of Oberlin and Yellow Springs. Linking Legacies celebrates the legacy of these composers by featuring performers with personal connections to the institutions where they trained, and to the composers themselves.
Before and during this week’s worship service, Linking Legacies will present music of Bach, H. Leslie Adams, Dolores White, Rhiannon Giddens, along with a number of traditional Spirituals.
Christopher Jenkins, viola
Christopher Jenkins is the Associate Dean for Academic Support at Oberlin Conservatory. He is currently earning a DMA in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Ph.D. in musicology from Case Western Reserve University, where his performance and research focuses on the music of African-American composers. The American Society for Aesthetics awarded him a curriculum diversification grant for his annotated bibliography on sources related to the aesthetics of African-American classical music, and the Irene H. Chayes “New Voices” award for his paper reimagining the practice of classical music through the lens of Black aesthetics.
Mr. Jenkins was a 2003 laureate of the Sphinx Competition, and was Dean of the Sphinx Performance Academy for seven years prior to coming to Oberlin. He was also the Deputy Director of the Barenboim-Said Music Academy in Ramallah, Palestine. He has performed with the St. Louis Symphony and New York Philharmonic, the American Ballet Theater, and on Broadway in productions such as Spamalot, Shrek, and The Lion King.
Mr. Jenkins previously earned a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University, focusing on human rights. His international engagement has included performances and teaching in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, China, Colombia, and South Africa, and an engagement as a guest artist at the Afghan National Institute of Music in Kabul, Afghanistan. His teachers have included Lynne Ramsey, Michael Tree, Martha Katz, Karen Dreyfus, Karen Ritscher, Michelle LaCourse, and Carol Rodland. His alma maters include Harvard University, Columbia University, New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music.
Matthew Jones, tenor
Originally from Savannah, Georgia, tenor Matthew Jones is currently based in Cleveland, Ohio. A frequent orchestral soloist, his concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Stow Symphony, the Trinity Chamber Orchestra of Cleveland, the Painesville Chamber Orchestra; Handel’s Messiah with the Savannah Symphony, Cleveland Messiah Chorus, and Trinity Chamber Orchestra of Cleveland; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Savannah Philharmonic; and Bach’s Cantata BWV 8 with the Trinity Chamber Orchestra of Cleveland. Acclaimed for his “lively agility for dancing, and his light timbre,” Jones’ recent operatic engagements include the role of Sportin’ Life from Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess with The Cleveland Opera, Opera of the Western Reserve, and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival. He has also appeared with The Cleveland Opera, Great Lakes Light Opera, and Cleveland Public Theatre.
Mr. Jones has worked directly with and performed the works of numerous composers, including H. Leslie Adams, Dolores White, Ahmed Alabaca, and Buck McDaniel. He performs regularly with professional choirs in the Cleveland area and elsewhere, including Cleveland Chamber Choir, the Taylor Festival Singers, CityMusic Cleveland, Savannah Philharmonic, Contrapunctus Cleveland, The Cleveland Opera, and the Trinity Chamber Singers. Mr. Jones holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance from Cleveland State University, and is on the voice faculty at the Cleveland Music Settlement, Center for Music.
Dianna White-Gould, piano
Dianna White-Gould is an active soloist, accompanist and educator. She was born into a musical family. Her father was a cellist with The Cleveland Orchestra and her mother a composer and pianist. She began her early piano studies with her mother, then went on to high school where she was an active performing member of The Fortnightly Music Club and, as part of that group, a Gold Cup recipient for outstanding piano performances. She graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory. She later received a Master’s in Piano Performance from Cleveland State University. She attended L’Ecole de Fontainebleau in France as a student of Gaby Casadesus. She has also toured Germany performing as accompanist and soloist at The Odenwald Summer Music Festival.
Ms. White-Gould has appeared as the featured soloist with The Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra, and twice as soloist with the Heights Civic Orchestra. Other performing appearances include solo and collaborative performances at Severance Hall, Oberlin College, Ursuline College, Cuyahoga Community College, The Music Settlement, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Public Library, Wooster College and The South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago. She has a strong interest in new music and music of African-American composers and has given world premieres by composers Dolores White, H. Leslie Adams, Hale Smith, and George Walker. She is on faculty at the Cleveland Music Settlement and the Dike School of the Arts, where she directs the Choir and Keyboard program.
-Mike Carney, UUCC Music Director