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Musicians To Attend Presentation

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Parent Issue
Day
9
Month
January
Year
1974
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Musicians To Attend Presentation

Eubie Blake, who has been called the grand old man of ragtime, and many other well-known black stage artists will gather for the formal presentation of the Eva Jessye Afro-American Music Collection at the U-M Jan. 19. 

The ceremony will begin at 3 p.m. in the Stearns Building on the U-M North Campus (at Baits and Broadway), Prof. James A. Standifer, the collection’s director, said.

Dr. Eva Jessye, the first black woman to earn international distinction as a choral conductor, has given her extensive personal collection of black music memorabilia to the U-M. Many of the guests at the presentation ceremony, Dr. Standifer said, are friends of Dr. Jessye and have donated items to the collection.

Among the guests will be: Etta Moten Barnett, concert singer; Robert L. Nolan, head of his own school of music in Detroit and music editor of the Michigan Chronicle; Ethel Ramos Harris, pianist and composer now living in Pittsburgh; Eva Taylor Williams, one of the pioneers of radio performance known as the “Dixie Nightingale”; Elma Lewis, director of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Dorchester, Mass.; Harriet Easton, editor of a senior citizen newspaper and widow of Sidney Easton of stage fame as composer and comedian;

Marian Nettles, music teacher in New York, graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, and former voice instructor at Hampton Institute; Edgar Battle, recording artist and jazz composter, who was co-composer with Nobel Sissle of “Red Ball Express”, named after the famed supply train of Patton’s Army in World War II; Edna Ricks, who appeared "as much as anybody alive in productions of 'Porgy and Bess’,” according to Dr. Jessye; and Herman Hemmitt, operatic baritone from Chicago, who played the role of the crab man in "Porgy and Bess." 

The presentation of the Jessye Collection will be presided over by Allen P. Britton, dean of the University of Michigan School of Music, who will also introduce the guests.

After an arrangement of “Deep River” is performed by members bf the U-M Symphonic . Wild Ensemble under the baton of Prof. Harry McTerry, the Rev. Carroll O. Arnold of the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor will give the invocation. 

Dr. Standifer and Dwight Andrews, president of the U-M Black Music Students Association, are to present the collection to the University. President Robben W. Fleming will accept the gift.

Mrs. Barnett and Nolan will reflect briefly on the life and times of Dr. Jessye and her many colleagues and their contributions to American musical theatre.

The musical program of the presentation ceremony will include a jazz medley by William Bolcom of the U-M music composition faculty; Howard Swanson's “I’ve Known Rivers” sung by doctoral student Z. Edmund Toliver; a short talk and possibly rendition of “Crazy Fingers” by Eubie Blake; and a choral work by Dr. Jessye entitled “Move! Let Me Shine!” by members of the U-M Chamber Choir under the direction of Professor Thomas Hilbish.

A reception will follow the ceremony and the collection will be open for viewing.

Dr. Jessye donated her collection of mementos, scores, manuscripts, photos, and letters to the University of Michigan School of Music and others have added substantially to the collection. “Her rich experiences in the theatre world of the Twenties, when she worked as choral director with George Gershwin and Virgil Thompson and traveled through America and Europe with her Eva Jessye Choir, brought her many friends among the great performers and composers of that era of musical theatre known as the "Golden Era" Dr. Standifer noted.

A recent donation by Mr. and Mrs. Eubie Blake to the collection is a video-taped interview conducted by Dr. Standifer with Blake.

Blake will conduct a special seminar at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 18, in the Cady Room of Stearns, Building. The session is open to the public free of charge.