Hear PYP Perform William Grant Still’s ‘The Far West’ from ‘The American Scene’

Posted on December 7, 2018

11.10.2018 - PYP and Musical Director David Hattner perform William Grant Still’s The Far West from The American Scene in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Click here to read our in-depth program notes about this piece.

WILLIAM GRANT STILL (part 1 of 5)

Posted on October 12, 2018

William Grant Still (with instrument case) with his friends at Wilberforce University, 1915. Photo from the holdings of the University of Arkansas Libraries’ Special Collections.

William Grant Still (1895-1978) is known as “The Dean of African-American Composers”, for good reason.  The standard sites and survey history books cite the same litany of impressive firsts:

—the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra,—the... Read More ›

WILLIAM GRANT STILL: EARLY ADULT YEARS (part 2 of 5)

Posted on October 10, 2018

Company photo, “Shuffle Along” on tour in Boston, 1921; Still is second from far left. Photo from Broadway Collection.

Even though William Grant Still never completed his Bachelor’s degree, in his twenties he managed to cobble together an astoundingly broad and deep musical education that was probably more multifaceted and multicultural in its outlook than any other single composer of his era.  Even... Read More ›

WILLIAM GRANT STILL: CRYSTALLIZING THE DREAM (part 3 of 5)

Posted on October 8, 2018

William Grant Still in rehearsal.  From Houston Public Media.

Still’s self-identified second period took its shape, as his wife Verna Arvey later related, from a “dream dating back to 1916 when as a young man, he went to Memphis to work with W.C. Handy” (Arvey, Memo to Musicologists).  Once he learned about the Blues in their original context, he resolved that he someday he... Read More ›

WILLIAM GRANT STILL: TROUBLED HISTORY (part 4 of 5)

Posted on October 5, 2018

“Musicians William Grant Still, L. Wolfe Gilbert, W. C. Handy, Frank Drye and Andy Razaf in Los Angeles, Calif., circa 1954.”  From UCLA Library, Islandora Repository, Los Angeles Daily News Negatives.

During the 30s and 40s, Still was at the height of his standing in the ‘serious’ music world; his compositions in many genres, including five symphonies, numerous tone poems and orchestral suites, Sahdji, the... Read More ›

WILLIAM GRANT STILL: “WE ALL RISE TOGETHER OR WE DON’T RISE AT ALL” (part 5 of 5)

Posted on October 3, 2018

Mural by Noni Olabisi, the William Grant Still Art Center, Los Angeles, CA: “William Grant Still conducting his powerful operatic score [“Troubled Island”], with his spiritual “eye” in the middle of his forehead, which expresses the need for a new era of interracial understanding, loving-kindness and God-consciousness on the earth.”  From WilliamGrantStill.com.

One word that could sum up Still’s life and work could very well be “integration.”... Read More ›