These composers deserved better; Bach Festival rights old wrongs | Review (Orlando Sentinel)

By Matthew J. Palm
ORLANDO SENTINEL ARTS WRITER

William Grant Still was awarded 10 honorary doctorates for his contributions to music and wrote five symphonies and eight operas. Do you know of any them? George Walker was the first Black man to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. Can you name one of his compositions? R. Nathaniel Dett was the first Black man to graduate with a music degree in composition and piano from the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory of Music. What’s his most famous work?

If you are drawing blanks on my questions, don’t feel alone. The point of the Bach Festival Society’s exciting “Insights & Sounds” program on Thursday night was to turn the spotlight on these and others who contributed to the American music scene, but because of the racism of their times never became part of the mainstream musical canon.