Black Con Students Show Pride in Performance
by Douglass Dowty

The Oberlin Conservatory’s Black Musicians’ Guild combined Oberlin’s strong African-American student presence and renowned music conservatory last Friday night to “Honor [Black] Heritage in Concert,” as one of the final events in the campus-wide celebration of Black History Month.
The concert, conceived, directed and performed by African American musicians, was sponsored by the Oberlin Conservatory Black Musicians’ Guild. Held in Warner Concert Hall, the event attracted a crowd as diverse as the College community and numbered into the hundreds.

The program opened and ended with renditions of James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” long considered the National Negro Anthem. College first-year TreZure Taylor sang a variation on the anthem, composed by Conservatory sophomore Ivy Newman and performed with a dignified piano accompaniment. After two hours of black spirituals, jazz and student compositions, the program finished with the performers and audience together in a rendition of the powerful piece accompanied by Warner Hall’s massive organ.
“Our goal was to present an educational, reflective and inspiring event, just like the other Black History events have done,” senior double-degree vocalist Martha Newland said in respect to the concert. Along with Ivy Newman, Newland is co-president of the Oberlin Conservatory Black Musicians’ Guild. She pointed out that the concert was the only official musical event during the February celebration.

Other highlights of the program included rapturous performances of black spirituals, many of which were born on slave plantations. “Were You There, Crucifixion” and “Watch and Pray,” performed by first-year Jonathan Green, Jason Epps and Newland, respectively, were all spirituals from a time when many African Americans looked to religion as a means of survival. The simple and repeated text of these songs communicated a respect and appreciation for the African American past that would be hard to express in words alone.

However, the concert was not confined to just old spiritual melodies.

“We feel this concert gives a glimpse into the vast diversity within the black music tradition,” Newland said. She stressed the importance of celebrating and honoring all black composers as they are so often marginalized — both within mainstream programming and institutional music education.

To this end, the concert featured more recent works by jazz masters such as Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington. Even more contemporary were three pieces composed by Oberlin students and two songs arranged by Conservatory Jazz Studies professor Wendell Logan.

Newman also gave the concert a modern twist with her composition, “Tell Me,” sung by Taylor and accompanied by sophomore Courtney Bryan on piano, junior Marion Parker on double-bass and first-year Kassa Overall on drums. Bryan, who served as accompanist for much of the night, shined as she conducted her Winter Term project piece, “Wherever He Leads Me.” Including most of the performers from the entire concert, with some additions, this piece was a fusion of aged spirituals, such as the well-known “Old Time Religion.”
The concert also featured some jazz, including solos by sophomore Josiah Woodson on trumpet and Junior Calvin Barnes on saxophone, and full ensemble numbers, such as the dramatic ending movement entitled “Wherever You Leave Me.”
Also notable from the concert were the spiritual “Going Home,” performed by Barnes on saxophone with Adam Faulk as accompanist, and “A Prayer for Love,” a piece for string quartet by J. Jefferson Cleveland and played by junior violinist Dwayne Brice, sophomore violist Keith Lawrence, sophomore violist Reginald Paterson and junior cellist Jamila Watkins. Hollow chords and soothing playing predominated this work, which had an interesting melody with variations from the famous hymn “We Shall Overcome.”
Newland and Newman founded OCBMG at the start of this school year. While this is the Guild’s first musical event, they have been actively involved in many aspects of black Conservatory students. Other programs organized by the Guild include a new student orientation for African American Conservatory students, lectures and musical opportunities featuring prominent African American musicians and composers and gatherings to actively support the cause of black composers.

“OCBMG serves to create a base of support and guidance — academically, musically, socially and culturally — for Oberlin Conservatory’s black students,” Oberlin’s Africana Community Coordinator, Kwame Willingham, said in the OCBMG Mission Statement.
“I think the Guild has among its goals the greater appreciation of the broad spectrum of black musical creativity. I think it’s seminally important that our own voices be heard and developed,” Conservatory composition professor, Jeffrey Mumford, said. Mumford said that, as black musicians, “We need to expand the scope of how we see ourselves and break through the self-limiting ideology wherever it occurs.”
Current OCBMG projects include creating a fund to give African-American musicians financial support for costly summer programs or travel grants for graduate school auditions. More OCBMG concerts are being planned for the future.