Silenced Black Voices

We can only imagine how much courage, self-confidence and steadfastness the African-American Julia Perry had to muster on her way to becoming a composer, at a time when the doors of classical music were not open to women or people of color. And yet she pursued her goal unswervingly, studying first with Luigi Dallapiccola and later with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Her career began in 1951 with the "Stabat Mater", but it was never given the atte...