Timeline: Vermont Public Classical

Last year, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s long-time music director, Jaime Laredo, stepped down after over 20 years with the orchestra. Now, the VSO has several candidates to fill that position. They’ll be coming to Vermont, meeting with the orchestra and the audience, as well as conducting concerts this coming season. The first, conductor, Akiko Fujimoto, will be conducting the orchestra’s October 30th concert that’s taking place at the Flynn Center in Burlington. I had a chance to chat with Akiko, via zoom.

We continue our series of episodes about African composers with an exploration of the life, music and legacy of Nigerian composer Olatunji Akin Euba.

Since the dawn of the Romantic era, composers have used their music as a means to express their individual nationalities and their hopes for their culture. Consider the nationalism evident in the music of Mikhail Glinka or the activism in the works of Jean Sibelius. Today, composers are still finding new ways to incorporate their ethnic identity and cultural heritage in the tradition of classical music; as evident in the works and influence of contemporary South African composer Neo Muyanga.

August of 2013, the city of Jerusalem hosted a series of tribute concerts dedicated to the music of Ethiopian violinist, pianist and composer, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. It was the first time that her music had been performed in that city. However, her recordings had been around for decades. Her solo piano waltzes have a unique lilt and style, with an almost blues-like quality. Perhaps that’s why Guèbrou has been nickname “The Honky-Tonk Nun.”

The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in Western Africa. Over the centuries many of the Yoruba were displaced, first by the Atlantic slave trade and later in the 20th century by mass migration to the United States and the United Kingdom. The music of Nigerian composer Fela Sowande provided a voice for these African people entering a Western world. Sowande is an internationally recognized African composer and was called the father of Nigerian art music.

Innovation and transformation are impossible without experimentation. That’s something that 20th Century Columbian composer, Jacqueline Nova, truly understood. Nova pioneered electroacoustic music and smashed limitations, including form, sound, discipline and even gender.

Austria has the Viennese waltz; Kiev has the hopak; Spain the flamenco and Argentina the tango. This rhythmic dance came from Buenos Aires and Montevideo in the late 19th century. In the hands of 20th century composer Astor Piazzolla the tango evolved into an expressive, experimental musical form.

Antonio Lauro always thought of himself as a composer first, not a performer. However, late in life he and his guitar embarked on a successful solo concert tour around the world. Just before his death in 1986, Lauro was given the Premio Nacional de Musica, the highest artistic award in Venezuela.

Just as Bela Bartok gave a voice to the folk music of Hungary in the 20th century, Alberto Ginastera did the same for the music of Argentina. Many call Ginastera one of the most important South American composers of the past century.

Aaron Copland, Jean Franciax, Elliot Carter, Philipp Glass and Quincy Jones; what do all of these musicians have in common? They were all students of Nadia Boulanger. Nadia was a composer, conductor and teacher. For seven decades, out of her family’s flat in Paris, she taught some of the most influential composers of the 20th century.