Black composers you should know will be heard at Red Bank Juneteenth concert

RED BANK - If you ask a bunch of chamber music enthusiast to name a string quartet, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s "American" would be along the top ten guesses, said Chris Foard, president of the board of trustees of the Red Bank Chamber Music Society, said.

But what many music lovers may not know is that one of Dvořák’s influences was Harry Burleigh, a Black composer whom he became colleagues with at a music conservatory in New York City.

Burleigh and a number of other Black musicians will be celebrated in a Juneteenth concert at the United Methodist Church in Red Bank. The Red Bank Chamber Music Society, in partnership with the T. Thomas Fortune Cultural Center, will host the Harlem Chamber Players for a free concert starting at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 19.

The partnership came about shortly after last year’s Juneteenth, the first year the holiday was celebrated as a national holiday, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

T. Thomas Fortune, a pioneering Black journalist who owned three newspapers and worked with the likes of Ida B. Wells and Booker T. Washington, lived in Red Bank.

Gilda Rogers, executive director of the center, said his family was musical.

“They had recitals and things like that in their home,” Rogers said. “So, music was very vital in the Fortune home.”

Fortune’s wife, Carrie Fortune, was a classically trained pianist and singer. She would play at the St. Thomas Episcopal Church located less than a mile west from where the Harlem Chamber Players will be playing next month.

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When the Red Bank Chamber Music Society approached Rogers about hosting a concert featuring Black musicians from the 18th to 20th century, she thought it was a great idea.

She wanted to learn about Black musicians “from a time when we were thought not to be artists. And they are masters of their artistry.”

The event will also host commentary by Liz Player, founder and executive and artistic director of the Harlem Chamber Players, who will explain the pieces selected and their significance to classical chamber music.

The composers include Joseph Bologne or Chevalier de Saint-Georges, who was Mozart’s contemporary and was both known for his music and his fencing ability, according to Foard.

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Foard said, “It’s just so fascinating how he went from being a poor boy in Guadeloupe and became well known in French society writing music.”

The program will also include Harry Burleigh, who introduced Dvořák to Native American and Black music; Florence Price, the first Black woman to have a composition performed by a major orchestra; and George Walker, the first Black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and a Rutgers University professor.

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Foard said the music will range from early classical to classical romantic and 20th century music styles.

“Chamber music is often perceived as being very white, very elitist,” Foard said. “We wanted to show how there have been African American or Black contributions all along.”

“Just like we all particiate in the Fourth of July, everybody should be participating in Juneteenth,” Rogers said. “Because it’s the coming together of the cultures. Black and white, in spite of what was good, bad and ugly.”

Rogers said the event will be educational for everyone who attends.

“I think the reaction that we want is like ‘Wow. I didn’t know that this music existed and had the impact that it did,’” Foard said.

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Juneteenth concert in Red Bank NJ celebrates Black composers