African American Voices

Composer William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony could hardly have had a more auspicious start in the world. Its Carnegie Hall premiere in 1934 was played by the Philadelphia Orchestra under world-famous conductor Leopold Stokowski, and CBS relayed a national radio broadcast. Despite a positive reception, Dawson’s Symphony was soon neglected. In recent years, however, it has risen again, as the work of African American composers in the classical tradition began attracting renewed attention. South Carolina-born conductor Kellen Gray contributes to that timely reappraisal in African American Voices, where Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony is one of three works featured. Gray hopes his own African American upbringing will have special light to cast on the music. “In this renaissance of recognition of Black composers, I felt it was important to revisit the earliest symphonies,” he tells Apple Music. “They contain such a rich concentration of folk elements from African American music and culture, but have yet to be broadly recorded by conductors and musicians actually of the culture.” William Grant Still’s Symphony No. 1 “Afro-American” is the other main work on the album. “It’s labelled a jazz symphony,” Gray explains, “when, actually, like its William Dawson counterpart, it features elements from a much wider variety of African American music. You can hear spirituals, juba, gospel, blues, stride, swing and jazz.” George Walker’s short Lyric for Strings is also included, and Gray is full of praise for the way the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (where he is assistant conductor) has embraced the special idiom of all three pieces on the album. “From performing the folk styles of Scotland, the orchestra brings a commitment to authenticity when addressing Grant Still, Dawson and Walker,” Gray comments. “It’s exciting because the music from my earliest life experiences is the very same music that these symphonies were distilled from.”