A pioneering Black composer gets her due 110 years after her debut HEAD TOPICS

A pioneering Black composer gets her due 110 years after her debut

10/21/2022 7:44:00 AM

Pioneering Black composer Helen Hagan gets her due 110 years after her debut

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The Washington Post

Pioneering Black composer Helen Hagan gets her due 110 years after her debut Samantha Ege and the Yale Philharmonia will perform the orchestral world premiere of Helen Hagan’s “Piano Concerto in C Minor.” AdvertisementA:There was absolutely a connection at that time. On that album, there’s a composer called Nora Holt — just this absolutely fabulous woman. She’s a socialite. She’s a scholar. She’s a performer. She is a nightclub hostess. She’s everything. She’s a Renaissance woman — that’s how I think of her. On top of that, she was also a music critic for the Chicago Defender, and she used to review Helen Hagan’s concerts. So this is not a forced narrative of this Black women’s creative circle; this is very much the reality. I think of them as almost like a school of music, a school of composition, this Black Renaissance era: Helen Hagen, Florence Price, all of these women belong to that. Read more:
The Washington Post » Black Adam Now Projected for $60 Million Opening Weekend Domestic Box Office Aldis Hodge Has Long Been Waiting for His Superhero Moment ‘The School for Good and Evil’ Review: Ever Afters and Never Afters Northfield woman gets a year of probation for telling Black cyclist to leave Winnetka pier

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Home sales in the US declined for the eighth month in a row in September as surging mortgage rates and high prices pushed buyers out of the market. Read more >> Black Adam Now Projected for $60 Million Opening Weekend Domestic Box OfficeAfter years of anticipation, Dwayne Johnson is finally making his DC debut tomorrow night in Black [...] That's a win 40 maybe Aldis Hodge Has Long Been Waiting for His Superhero MomentAfter over three decades in the business, AldisHodge is getting his due with BlackAdam. “Manifestation is real as hell,” he tells VF. ‘The School for Good and Evil’ Review: Ever Afters and Never AftersTwo best friends have princess dreams and witchy nightmares in “The School for Good and Evil,” a film adaptation of Soman Chainani’s book series streaming on Netflix. Northfield woman gets a year of probation for telling Black cyclist to leave Winnetka pierA Northfield woman has been sentenced to a year of probation after reaching a plea deal on charges that she told a man to leave a Winnetka pier because he was Black. Wow. What a slap on the wrist for such a heinous hate crime The worst type of person. With her unpronounceable non-American last name and tired, unattractive self and her bold racism, she should have been jailed for a year. ” album part of an active community, or was it later research that brought them together in our consciousness? Advertisement A: There was absolutely a connection at that time.After years of anticipation, Dwayne Johnson is finally making his DC debut tomorrow night in Black Adam.After hanging up with Johnson, Hodge immediately locked in.Find Tickets When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. On that album, there’s a composer called Nora Holt — just this absolutely fabulous woman. She’s a socialite. Currently, Black Adam is up on Rotten Tomatoes with a 55% critics score. She’s a scholar. Hodge had weights sent up to his room to get him by until his quarantine was completed. She’s a performer.com's Evan Valentine gave the movie a 3. She is a nightclub hostess. So what Netflix’s “The School for Good and Evil” attempts — to draw from and pervert cookie-cutter hero and villain stories in a novel way — is a task so monumental that it can’t measure up. She’s everything." Previously, it was predicted that Black Adam could rake in twice the amount as Shazam! at the box office, and Variety is reporting that the movie is expected to win the weekend and earn about $60 million domestically. Then, the minute he wrapped production on Leverage: Redemption in New Orleans, Hodge headed straight to Black Adam ’s production headquarters in Atlanta, two months early, to start training with the stunt team, and tapping into his martial arts background to discover the “limits” of his body, so he could push past them. She’s a Renaissance woman — that’s how I think of her. On top of that, she was also a music critic for the Chicago Defender, and she used to review Helen Hagan’s concerts. The DC movie's biggest competition this weekend will be the George Clooney and Julia Roberts romantic comedy, Ticket to Paradise, which is expected to earn about $15 million in its 3,500 theatres. So this is not a forced narrative of this Black women’s creative circle; this is very much the reality.” And both Hodge and Hawkman needed to be able to truly bring it if they were going to attempt to take down Johnson’s Black Adam, a powerful and uncompromising antihero whose sudden emergence from 5,000 years of imprisonment jeopardizes the JSA’s charge to protect international stability. I think of them as almost like a school of music, a school of composition, this Black Renaissance era: Helen Hagen, Florence Price, all of these women belong to that. Currently, it's not expected to beat out The Batman, which came out in March and earned $770 million worldwide. Sophie aims to prove that she’s really meant to be a princess, but in the process is seduced by a greater evil; and Agatha, seeing the maniacal plots afoot, tries to save Sophie and return them home. Q: The last century has managed to silence so many of these composers or scatter them into obscurity. I think the temptation is to imagine that they were also functioning in some sort of isolation. Superman movie in the future, but don't expect the iconic hero to be showing up in Black Adam. We’re both on separate missions: Black Adam has his mission for revenge, and Hawkman has his mission to stop Black Adam. But it doesn’t sound like that was the case at all. A: Definitely not."By the time the movie ends, he doesn't know who Shazam or Superman is. I mean, Helen Hagan won a scholarship that enabled her to study in France, and she’s there with all of the big-name contemporaries. Hawkman has a very rooted understanding and definition of what justice is to him, and Black Adam tests that understanding.” But the film doesn’t have the space to expand all of its ideas and gracefully unfold its plot, which is full of so many narrative twists and reversals that “The School for Good and Evil” equates to a whole TV season untidily packed into a feature film. I think of Nora Holt studying with Nadia Boulanger."    Who Is In The Justice Society of America? "We have Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher. You have to be of a certain level to be accepted under her tutelage. So these are women that are operating at a very high level, and their success in that time speaks volumes because they are in this hostile Jim Crow environment, and yet they are entering these very elite, very competitive spaces."For Doctor Fate, he's almost godlike, so to have Pierce Brosnan, who is so warm and sensitive, made it the perfect combination. But forget the required special effects, the real concern when it came to filming such a showdown was Hodge worrying about whether he might need to pull a punch or two. ‘An African-American Requiem’ turns national grief into powerful music Q: From what little of Hagan’s music we have, is it possible or even useful to triangulate Hagan’s music among her influences, mentors or musical community? A: I find that the work I’ve done on Florence Price gives me a better understanding of where Helen Hagan is coming from. Price studied at the New England Conservatory of Music, and I feel that this entire education and in the education of so many early-20th-century Black composers who are attending these predominantly White institutions, the German school of composition is so strong in the pedagogy, and that feeds into the sound world that we hear.k. What’s really interesting with Helen Hagan’s work is that this concerto doesn’t have any of the folk influences that you would hear in her contemporaries or her predecessors like [Harry] Burleigh or Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, or Florence Price, Margaret Bonds or Nora Holt. I ain’t trying to catch that smoke!” Yes, Hawkman is a beast who can dominate foes, equally, in the air or on the ground, but Hodge was just as invested in doing right by the man behind the hawk. And it turns out that she was interested in that — there are other works where she actually reflected these diverse inspirations in African American folk music. Hawkman, who"has a very strict sense of morality and justice," Collet-Serra explained. But the concerto itself is very grounded in this Romantic tradition. But then she got some ideas which are very experimental. Atom Smasher is a little bit of the new kid on the black. So I wanted to make sure that when you see this man, walking as a man, you realize, with or without the weapons, this brother right here is a problem in the best way possible. So she’s not bound by tradition. She knows how to use it. Finally, we have Cyclone, who comes from a lineage of heroes and has been imbued with nanotechnology. And then she kind of wants to take it further. Bruce Wayne could never. Q: Have you had a chance to rehearse with the orchestra yet? Or is tonight’s rehearsal going to be the first? Advertisement A: Tonight will be the first time. Uli Latukefu, Marwan Kenzari, Mohammed Amer, James Cusati-Moyer, and Bodhi Sabongui are also in the film. The first time I played it in preparation for my album, I found it a real challenge because I didn’t have a strong sense of what Hagan’s voice should sound like. It’s so different with my other repertoire because I’ve got examples to draw upon.. “I sketched up a couple of things, and we’ve been going back and forth on that for a minute, because we ran out of material; we only had enough for the jacket. Even if I’m playing pieces that haven’t been recorded, there are recordings of other works that can give me a sense of direction. But with Helen Hagan, it was a real challenge. I’m at a point now where the notes are feeling more and more a part of me. The second look in London, that’s a whole different beast as well. Honestly, I don’t know how I’m going to feel when I hear it with the orchestra. Worst case, I imagine, is that I’ll kind of freeze up and be so overwhelmed that we’ll see. I hope not! Q: I suspect you’ll be just fine. Most Popular. Is there anything about Hagan or her concerto that we didn’t cover? A: There is one other thing that I’d like to share: I find it interesting that as a pianist, playing this kind of repertoire has a way of bringing me into these composer’s worlds in ways that I never experienced when I was playing music from the canon. And there’s just something really moving about learning a piece and then, months later, or years later, finding yourself in the same venue where that particular composer was, playing their music. There’s something very special about the way that these women have drawn me into their world since I’ve been learning their music. And I’m very grateful for that. Piano Concerto in C Minor has its world premiere Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Woolsey Hall, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. .