Professor of Music Michael Cooper published two new volumes of previously unknown compositions by Florence Price: Seven Songs on Texts of African American Poets and 12 Pieces for Piano Solo (both Fayetteville, AK: ClarNan Editions) and released these in tandem with sixteen videos performed and produced by African American artists; four of these videos were produced with assistance from Southwestern. The volume of songs was released in both the original settings for medium voice and a separate edition for high voice (because we all want to keep the sopranos happy). Totaling about 54 minutes worth of music, the 19 pieces in these volumes reveal the breadth and richness of Price’s musical imagination and span her active composing career from 1929 to the early 1950s. Those interested in hearing the Seven Songs on Texts of African American Poets can check out this YouTube playlist, and those interested in hearing the 12 Pieces for Piano Solo can check out this YouTube playlist. Listeners should, however, be forewarned that after listening to either or both of these playlists, they might experience what one listener dubbed #ThePriceEffect: a highly emotional state that mingles joy at this music’s entry into public life with a wide range of other emotions triggered by the music itself and sorrow that such genius that the political economy of the music industry and higher education allowed these works to remain unknown for decades – depriving audiences, teachers, and (most of all) students of their beauties.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper published the first monograph on Margaret Bonds and her music. Titled “Margaret Bonds: The Montgomery Variations and Du Bois Credo,” the book was published by Cambridge University Press as part of the New Cambridge Music Handbooks series. It was born during the tumultuous year 2020 and draws on dozens of previously unpublished archival documents and takes a deeply interdisciplinary dive into the complex and powerful cultural, intellectual, political, social, and musical cross-currents that produced these twin summits of Margaret Bonds’s career-long quest to put her talent and her art into the service of the quest for racial justice and global equality. It is available here.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper was interviewed by the Hong Kong-based online magazine Interlude about his forthcoming Cambridge University Press book on Margaret Bonds’s “Montgomery Variations” and “Credo” (https://tinyurl.com/y3drvdkb) and his ongoing projects concerning Bonds and Florence Price in general. The book is due out this month. Those who missed their extra hour of sleep this past weekend can quickly recapture it by reading the interview here.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper was interviewed by the Hong Kong-based online magazine Interlude about his forthcoming Cambridge University Press book on Margaret Bonds’s “Montgomery Variations” and “Credo” (https://tinyurl.com/y3drvdkb) and his ongoing projects concerning Bonds and Florence Price in general. The book is due out this month. Those who missed their extra hour of sleep this past weekend can quickly recapture it by reading the interview here: https://tinyurl.com/3w7dtb73.

Professor of Music Michael Cooper gave the keynote address “Margaret Bonds: A Life in Music” and two pre-concert lectures at the first-ever three-day Margaret Bonds symposium on November 3-5. Hosted by Queens University (Charlotte, North Carolina), the symposium included a salon recital of Bonds’s art songs, popular songs, and spirituals and a choral concert that included Bonds’s choral lullaby “Sleep Song” and a performance of her magisterial setting of W.E.B. Du Bois’s iconic civil-rights manifesto “Credo” (both works recently edited and published by Cooper as part of the Margaret Bonds Signature Series of Hildegard Publishing Company).