Not Forgotten Anymore: The African American Composer Initiative
The Babblery, produced by Suki Wessling
About the episode:
One day at her piano lesson, LaDoris Cordell asked her teacher, Jodi Gandolfi, if there were any
Black composers of concert music. Concert music is a more inclusive term for what many
people know as “classical” music: art songs, symphonies, opera, chamber music. The canon of
concert music is overwhelmingly white, or rather, it was.
LaDoris’s question sparked curio
sity in Jodi, whose investigations revealed a positive avalanche
of materials, so they brought in Deanne Tucker to help out. Over 20 years after that simple
question, the African American Composer Initiative is a concert series, it’s an archive, it’s a
community, and it’s a passion that has changed the lives of its founders.
Meta: @sukiwessling @ksqdradio @ksqdfm
Bluesky: @babblery.substack.com @ksqdfm.bsky.social
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susana-suki-wessling-490822/
