Thursday, December 9, 2010

Pianist Fredericka King & Trumpeter Charles Lewis in Music of William Grant Still, Weston MA Dec. 12



[TOP: Charles Lewis (Photo Bill Gallery) MIDDLE: Big Classics; Fredericka King, piano (2005) CDBaby.com BOTTOM: Fredericka King (Photo Susan Wilson)]

AfriClassical contacted pianist Fredericka King, whose website is http://www.fkpianist.cjb.net/ after reading that she was to perform works of William Grant Still (1895-1978) and Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) along with Charles Lewis on trumpet, on Dec. 12 in Weston, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. The works of both composers have been compiled by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma and are featured at AfriClassical.com.

Sunday, Dec. 12
“3 p.m.: Concert -- Fredericka King (Piano) & Charles Lewis (Trumpet) at the Weston Library. The program ranges from the classical works by composers such as Bach, Mendelssohn, Chopin and Schubert to more modern compositions by Herbert L. Clarke, Joseph Lamb, William Grant Still and Margaret Bonds.”

Fredericka King promptly replied to our inquiry and explained that music of Margaret Bonds will not be heard on the program, but William Grant Still's Dark Horsemen and Summerland will be performed:
“Hello Mr.Zick -
Thank you for contacting me! I have been an admirer of the site for a number of years and regularly steer people to it to get information and to see the depth of the involvement of people of color in the Classical art

“The program will include 2 of the Three Visions by Mr.Still (Dark Horsemen and Summerland). Since I am performing with someone else*, their selection did not quite fit with the Bonds, so I will not be doing it on this program (which I had communicated to the organizers) - I had originally planned to play Troubled Water. I may do one of Florence Price's Dances in the Canebrakes as an encore but that's up in the air.
*the person on the program with me is the outstanding trumpet player CHARLES LEWIS (charlielewis.com), one of the founders of the brass quintet Empire Brass, winner of a Grammy with the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble for the Red Back Book, and currently full time faculty at Berklee College of Music.”

Excerpt from Fredericka King Bio
Her discography includes "A Born Pianist", a recording of solo repertoire by Classical and American composers, a three disc set titled "Piano Classics for Young Listeners" which she designed and produced, "Chamber music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor" with the Coleridge Ensemble, and one of solo and vocal works by American women, "Hooray for the Ladies!", recorded live, in concert, with the group American Classics.

Fredericka has received degrees from Boston Conservatory of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and studied in the Doctoral program at Boston University. She was awarded a Teaching Diploma by the Royal College of Music in London, England and also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

Miss King is a member of the piano faculty at New England Conservatory of Music Preparatory School, teaching young students and adult piano classes. In addition, she maintains a busy private teaching studio. She has taught Music History at Emerson College for a number of years and was recently appointed Music-Historian in Residence.

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