This episode is a replay from February 15, 2021. Click here to view the original episode.
The music we choose speaks volumes about us as musicians, whether we realize it or not. It expresses our personal tastes in terms of style, genre, modality, and more. Not only that, our musical choices have the power to amplify the people behind them: from gender to culture, race to religion, the composers themselves are just as much a part of the music we choose as the notes on the page.
It’s a topic we’ve discussed on the podcast before, but during Black History Month, I return to one of my favorite interviews of the history of the podcast. I spoke with Dr. Mickey Thomas Terry, organist and lecturer currently based in the Washington, D.C. area. Among Dr. Terry’s varied accomplishments is the African-American Organ Music Anthology, which recently released its 10th volume through MorningStar Music Publishers. Dr. Terry’s professional work, both through the anthology and his research at large, seek to raise visibility for music by African-American classical composers and give them the opportunity to be played and celebrated today.
And so today I replay my discussion with Dr. Terry, sharing his thoughts on the struggles of African-American composers and what we can do today to honor their esteemed work.
For more information on classical African American organ composers and African American classical composers, check out the resources below:
African American Organ Music: A Roundtable Discussion (aired September 8, 2020)
Mickey Thomas Terry, “Cultural Perceptions of African-American Organ Literature”. Perspectives on American Music since 1950, James R. Heintze, Ed.
Essays in American Music, vol. 4 (Garland Publishing Co., June 1999), p. 225-241.
Mickey Thomas Terry, African-American Classical Organ Music – A Case of Neglect.
The American Organist Magazine, March 1997, p. 56-61.
Mickey Thomas Terry, African-American Organ Literature: A Selective Overview.
The Diapason, April 1996, p. 14-17.
Mickey Thomas Terry, A Second Glance: An Overview of African-American Organ Literature.
The Diapason, May 1998, p. 18, 21 (available online here).
SHOW NOTES
Bio: Dr. Mickey Thomas Terry
MICKEY THOMAS TERRY holds degrees from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Dr. Terry’s principal organ teachers have been Clarence Watters, Charles Callahan, and Ronald Stolk (Improvisation). He was the Second Prize winner of the 9th Annual Clarence Mader National Organ Competition (Los Angeles/Pasadena), and a finalist in both the Michigan International Organ Competition (University of Michigan Music School-Ann Arbor), and the Flint Competition (Flint, Michigan).
Dr. Terry is a critically-acclaimed concert organist who has concertized throughout the United States and the Caribbean. He has been broadcast several times on Public Radio International’s Pipedreams. He was a featured recitalist at the 1997 Region III American Guild of Organists (AGO) Convention in Washington, DC and the 2001 Region IV Convention of the AGO in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Terry was also a featured recitalist at the 1998 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Denver and at the 2006 American Guild of Organists National Convention in Chicago.
Terry has been a featured artist at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and organ recitalist at the Piccolo-Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1996 and 1998, he presented the African-American Organ Music workshop at the American Guild of Organists National Convention. He also served as Sub-Dean and Program Chair of the District of Columbia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
He has published several journal articles that have appeared in The Musical Quarterly (Oxford University Press), The American Organist Magazine, The Diapason, as well as the British journal Choir and Organ. There is also an article that appears in Volume IV of Essays in American Music (Garland Publishers, 1999) and as well as an essay that appears in Readings in African-American Church Music and Worship (GIA Publications, 2001). Terry is the editor of a critically-acclaimed multi-volume (currently 8 vols) African-American Organ Music Anthology published by MorningStar Music Publishers (St. Louis, Missouri). He has also served on the Advisory board for the ECS/AGO African-American Organ Music Series published by E.C. Schirmer Music Company of Boston.
Dr. Terry appears on the Albany Records label compact disc George Walker-A Portrait, playing the organ works of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker and on the Minnesota Public Radio compact disc Pipedreams Premieres, Volume 2, playing an organ work of African-American composer Thomas H. Kerr.
Dr. Terry has also taught on the faculty of Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He serves as a Lecturer in Howard University’s Department of Music in Washington, DC. He is also Director of Music at Epiphany Catholic Church in Georgetown. He is the recipient of the 2020-2021 Artist Fellowship awarded by the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. A current biographical sketch of Dr. Terry also appears in Who’s Who in America.
All content of this podcast is property of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians or its content suppliers and is protected by United States and international copyright laws. For information about the podcast and its use, please contact us.