IU opera, ballet to feature music of William Grant Still, first professional Black conductor

American composer and conductor William Grant Still (1895-1978) was born in Mississippi and became the first Black person to conduct a professional orchestra in the United States.

Among his compositions are many symphonies, operas and ballets, but people know him best for his Afro-American Symphony (1931), which finally added him to the list of recognized music artists. In fact, he became known as the dean of Afro-American composers.

"An Evening of William Grant Still," featuring his opera "Highway 1, USA" plus a ballet, "19," set to his music, will come to Indiana University's Musical Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4, 5,11 and 12. The ballet will open the event.

In 1941 Still began work on "Highway 1, USA," with the title being "A Southern Interlude." He entered several competitions with it; none brought success. Twenty years later, while attending a concert at the University of Miami, Still and a faculty member/conductor talked about possibly producing a Still opera. Still made changes to "A Southern Interlude" and gave it a new title, "Highway 1, USA."

On Still's 68th birthday it premiered at Coral Gables High School in 1963. It was later performed at venues such as Opera/South in Jackson, Mississippi, and by New York City's Opera Ebony at the Beacon Theater. And last spring, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis performed it.

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Still began violin study at 14 and taught himself other instruments. He was particularly adept at cello and oboe. As a student at Ohio's Wilberforce University, he conducted the university band and began composition and orchestration. According to the Library of Congress website, the career of the English composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor motivated Still to compose operas and concert music. Still freelanced as an arranger and performer for many of the most highly regarded bands in the Ohio area.

Living in Los Angeles in the 1930s, he also composed film scoring, for which he received little credit, and he arranged music for theater orchestras and early radio, with names such as Paul Whiteman, Sophie Tucker, Willard Robison and Artie Shaw.

Howard Hanson and the Rochester Philharmonic premiered Still's Afro-American Symphony. In Manhattan it was premiered by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall (1935). New York City Opera produced Still's opera "Troubled Island," a first by any Black artist to be staged by a large opera company (1949). It was also the first by a Black composer to be aired on national TV.

Kimille Howard directs

Stage directing "Highway 1" is Kimille Howard, New York based director, writer and filmmaker and an assistant stage director at the Metropolitan Opera.

"This was a new experience for me in opera," she said over the phone. "(IU Jacobs) included me in the casting process." Normally, in opera, she said, the director arrives at rehearsal, "and they say, 'Here's your cast.'" She was glad about her inclusion, because singers are often chosen for their voices alone, without enough attention paid to how well they fit the character.

"It's not about people coming to hear the voice. It's about coming to hear the story. The singers must act their parts through the singing."

Howard had originally intended to work her way up to being a director at Disney World, where she had participated in Disney's college program. Among other duties, such as taking marketing classes, she sold merchandise (she was a "merch-entainer") at the Tower of Terror falling-elevator ride. Later, she worked in creative costuming.

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She began to realize that if she stayed with Disney she might miss developing her own ideas. Plus, having been an actor, she was tiring of working with directors with whom she disagreed. Directing seemed more freeing, and she wanted to be part of the "genesis of new work."

"Making sure that the actors have agency" is important to her as a director. "I'll step in if I feel like actors are upstaging themselves, but I take a collaborative approach."

One thing that appeals to her about directing "Highway 1" is that it's a story about Black people told by a Black artist.

While she likes the fact that all types of people are part of the repertoire, the works often just aren't their actual stories.

"You can modify a setting, but it wasn't written in our voice, as a people. I hope to see the work of (additional) current, living composers."

And, there is so much out there, much of which feels new because it hasn't been done yet.

Arthur Fagen conducts

Arthur Fagen conductor, Atlanta Opera music director and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music professor, will conduct.

Choreography by Sasha Janes

In addition to the opera, IU dancers will display freedom of movement in a ballet choreographed by Jacobs' associate professor of ballet Sasha Janes to music from Still’s Afro-American Symphony. This version of Jacobs’ ballet will include all three sections of Janes’ ballet "19." (Fall Ballet 2020 featured the first two movements of Janes' work.) The ballet is a standalone piece Janes choreographed as an exercise for the students after the rerun to classes the fall semester of 2020.

"I choreographed the first two movements, in which all of the dancers were physically distanced," he said, "and I thought eventually I would choreograph a final movement to represent the end of the pandemic, so I am choreographing that part now although I am having second thoughts about the ending!"

The pandemic surge has affected orchestra rehearsals, and there will not be a live orchestra for the ballet. A recording will be used for "19" followed by the planned live orchestra for "Highway 1, USA."

If you go

WHAT: Opera and ballet. "An Evening of William Grant Still." The opera "Highway 1, USA" plus "19," IU Jacobs’ 2020 Fall Ballet including the third section of Sasha Janes’ choreography.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4, 5,11 and 12.

WHERE: Both livestreaming (Feb. 4-5) and in person at the Musical Arts Center, 101 N. Jordan Ave., 812-855-7433.

TICKETS: https://operaballet.indiana.edu/buy-tickets/index.html.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU School of Music to host opera by Black composer William Grant Still