SoNA
Symphony of Northwest Arkansas
Mother and Child January 7, 2023 Walton Arts Center Paul Haas, conductor
Mother and Child (1943–1944)
including Dmitri Tiomkin for Frank Capra’s
William Grant Still
Lost Horizon. He was on the musical staff
b 11 May, 1895 in Woodville, MS
for the TV show Perry Mason. And he wrote
d 3 December, 1978 in Los Angeles, CA
prolifically for the concert hall—so much so, in fact, that much of his output awaits broader discovery.
William Grant Still’s long and varied career
Still’s Suite for Violin and Piano,
saw him active in an almost overwhelming
commissioned in 1943 by violinist Louis
variety of musical activities. He was the
Kaufman for himself and his pianist wife
first Black composer to have a symphony
Annette, consists of three miniatures
performed by a major orchestra and the
connected together by their sources in
first Black to conduct a major orchestra.
Jazz Age and Depression-era American art.
He played the oboe in theater orchestras
The second of those, Mother and Child, is
for Eubie Blake, Sophie Tucker, Artie Shaw,
based on a sculpture by Sargent Claude
and Paul Whiteman. He arranged music for
Johnson (1888–1967), who brought the
NBC radio shows. He wrote nine operas.
Harlem Renaissance to California, where he
He arranged music for film composers,
practiced a wide range of artistic pursuits,