Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Pianist Eldred Marshall Joins SMU Voices of Inspiration in Black History Concert Feb. 28


[“The Brahms Recital” of Eldred Marshall]

A story in today's Dallas News highlights the role of pianist Eldred Marshall in a Black History Month event set for Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. In October and November of 2009 AfriClassical explored Eldred Marshall's career in music, including his two CDs.

DallasNews.com
12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, February 24, 2010
“The Southern Methodist University Voices of Inspiration gospel choir and classical pianist Eldred Marshall will be among singers, dancers and narrators who will explore Africa's influence on gospel music at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Mount Horeb Missionary Baptist Church, 3306 Carpenter Ave. Call 214-502-9077.”

On October 25, 2009 AfriClassical posted: “AfriClassical Interviews African American Pianist Eldred Marshall.” A short time later, on Nov. 4, 2009, Eldred was again featured in: “'The Brahms Recital' CD of African American Pianist Eldred Marshall Available From Website.” After six years as a staff member for several elected officials, he had recently returned to school. Eldred is currently a graduate student working on a Master's degree in Piano Performance at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. The pianist explained that in 2008 he made two CDs which are available at his website, http://www.eldredmarshall.net/ The first to be recorded was “Eldred Marshall: Live and Uncut,” consisting of works composed by Liszt, Haydn, Bach, Schumann and himself.

The second CD was “The Brahms Recital.” Its program is the “Piano Sonata No. 9 in F Minor, Op. 5” (1853) and “Four Piano Pieces, Op. 119” (1893). The CD was recorded at Wahlberg Studios in San Francisco in July 2008. The critically acclaimed artist has performed internationally: Spain, Italy and the Republic of San Marino. A landmark in his career was to become the first African-American/Black pianist to perform the entire cycle of 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven in public, from memory, as a concentrated series. In the fall and winter of 2007, he performed the feat in Portland, Oregon. In the winter and spring of 2008, he repeated the series in San Francisco.

Comment by email
You caught my on one of my busiest weeks yet: tomorrow, Thursday, I will conduct members of the SMU/Meadows Symphony Orchestra from the piano in two Mozart piano concerti - nos. 9 & 20, with all my own cadenzas - in addition to performing in that concert on Sunday. At the Sunday concert, I'll be doing Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's arrangement of "Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child" from his 24 Negro Songs, op. 59. Hope you're doing well! Thanks for the post. Eldred

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