Seminar for Composers of Oxford – Research and Development: Caitlin Harrison and Leo Geyer

Caitlin Harrison – Elisabeth Lutyens vs The BBC  

Held on Zoom. Email leo.geyer@music.ox.ac.uk for the link.

Concert programming has come into question in recent years for the lack of representation and new music. Is anyone to blame for this? Is this a conscious decision made by individuals? We shall be exploring Elisabeth Lutyens’ turbulent career as a 20th century British composer; making a case study of her choral and vocal music and discussing the ramifications of programming decisions made 80 years ago that still affect us today.

Leo Geyer – William Grant Still – The Dean of African American Composers 

The musicologist Gayle Murchison has argued that Still’s achievements as the first African American to conduct a major US orchestra and the first to have an opera televised, can too easily be described as a series of firsts, which places him in American music history largely on the basis of his race, and falls short of acknowledging the significance of his musical achievements. This presentation will explore some issues surrounding his marginalisation and shed light on Still’s composition flair in the opera-ballet Sahdji, one of the earliest contemporary classical compositions fusing African music with the Western classical tradition.