Spirituals and Art Songs Focus of Annual Black Music Symposium

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Department of Music will host the Eddie Wade Jones Memorial Black Music Symposium, featuring three free public concerts from Wednesday, Jan.27- Saturday, Jan. 30.

The event is named in honor of its founder, the late Eddie Jones, associate professor of music at the U of A and director of both the university Concert Choir and the Inspirational Chorale.  

The symposium is both a tribute to the musical heritage of African Americans and a prelude to Black History Month. This year's theme focuses on the performance practice of the African American spiritual and art songs by African American composers.  

"MUSIC CELEBRATING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA"

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, Faulkner Performing Arts Center. Free and open to the public.

Composer and Black music scholar Jacqueline Hairston will lead Kimberley Davis (soprano), Manna KnJoi (soprano), and Jeffrey Allen Murdock (tenor) through a history of Black music, including her own compositions and art songs by other Black composers.

ORGAN RECITAL

7:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29, Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. Free and open to the public.

Leo Davis, a nationally known expert on the organ music of Black composers and the history of music in the Black church, will present a recital of spirituals for organ and discuss the music’s history.

CHORAL CONCERT

7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, Faulkner Performing Arts Center. Free and open to the public.

The U of A’s Inspirational Chorale and Schola Cantorum and the Northwest Arkansas Community Gospel Chorus will perform spirituals, gospel songs, and hymns under the direction of Stacey V. Gibbs, one of the most widely recognized arrangers of African American spirituals for choirs. The concert will feature several of Gibbs’ compositions, including “My God is a Rock,” which he wrote specifically for this event.