Margaret Bonds Essentials

Born in Chicago in 1913 and active in Harlem and Los Angeles, Margaret Bonds’ musical talents were nurtured from an early age by her parents, but also by the composer Florence Price who moved in with the family in the 1920s. Consequently, Bonds not only developed into a world-class concert pianist (she was the first Black soloist to appear with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), but a flair for composing. Frustratingly, much of Bonds’ substantial output remains unpublished, but here you can listen to a broad range of her music, including the work she regarded as her magnum opus, The Ballad of the Brown King. There are songs—many inspired by the poet Langston Hughes—and piano works, too, as well as Bonds’ much-loved arrangement of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands,” one of several spirituals commissioned and performed by the great soprano Leontyne Price.