Lee Koonce: Hello, everyone. I'm Lee Koonce, and today I have the pleasure of showcasing three winners of the historic National Association of Negro Musicians' competition here on the Young Artists Showcase. Since 1978, The Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation has generously supported the Young Artist Showcase, and in this episode, I'm delighted to feature three recent winners of the national association of Negro Musicians' annual competition.

Founded in 1919, the National Association of Negro Musicians, often referred to as NAMM, is the country's oldest organization dedicated to promoting, preserving, and supporting all genres of music created or performed by African Americans. Many extraordinary competition winners and other artists have been affiliated with this venerable organization, including artists such as Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, William Warfield, Florence Price, Lena Horne, Nina Simone, and many, many others.

Today, we are very excited to hear and speak with recent competition winners, violist Solomon Leonard, bass singer Edwin Jhamal Davis, and flutist Terry Andrews. We'll begin our show with Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude from Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008, performed by viola Solomon Leonard. Solomon was the 2023 first-place winner of the NAMM competition and he is currently a student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin, Ohio.

[MUSIC - Solomon Leonard: Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude from Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008]

[applause]

Lee Koonce: That was viola Solomon Leonard performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude from Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1008. For our next performance, let's listen to Fancy from Frederick C. Tillis, Three Show Pieces for Viola performed by violist Solomon Leonard.

[MUSIC - Solomon Leonard: Fancy from Frederick C. Tillis, Three Show Pieces for Viola]

[applause]

We've just listened to viola Solomon Leonard performing Robert C. Tillis' Fancy from Three Show Pieces for Viola. We're lucky to have Solomon Leonard here today to talk a little bit with us. Solomon, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your amazing music with us. Your repertoire is incredibly broad, from baroque to jazz and much, much more. Tell us a little bit about how you started playing the viola and your early musical training.

Solomon Leonard: Right, so I began playing the viola in 2014 in middle school when I was in the sixth grade. The story goes is that our conductor at the time, he wanted us to choose what we wanted to play, and I knew I didn't want to play the violin. [chuckles]

Lee Koonce: Why did you not want to play the violin? Everybody wants to play the violin. [chuckles]

Solomon Leonard: I never was attracted to the sound. I always loved deeper sounds. I had a list. It was viola first, and then cello, and then bass.

Lee Koonce: All lower instruments.

Solomon Leonard: All lower instruments. And I chose the viola. I think what's very individual about me is that when you have a young performer, they say that, "Someone in my family played this instrument," or, "I heard a great soloist." That wasn't the case for me. In terms of me, I say to folks that the viola chose me.

Lee Koonce: So the viola won, which is--

Solomon Leonard: The viola won.

Lee Koonce: Which is great for us. So let's talk a little bit about your music and what you're playing today. There's a piece on your program that I absolutely love. It's the Frederick Tillis' Three Showpieces for Viola. Can you tell us a little bit about Fred Tillis and what about his music speaks to you?

Solomon Leonard: So Frederick Tillis, he lived from 1930 and passed away recently in 2020. His Three Showpieces for Viola were composed in 1966, and I came about these pieces through the NAMM competition. I knew going into the NAMM competition last year, that I wanted to do a completely solo and--

Lee Koonce: But you didn't know about them before the competition?

Solomon Leonard: I did not know. I didn't know Frederick Tillis at all before the competition last year. I performed the Three Showpieces, it seems like over 10 times at this point. I've fallen in love with Frederick Tillis. He really dives into the resonance of the viola, larger intervals. He has such a, I'd say, introspective way of looking at the viola. If you think about dialogue, soliloquy and fancy, even those titles, he really speaks with the viola, which is very huge for me in my development, especially at Oberlin. I love the pieces, and I'll present them forever.

Lee Koonce: Thanks for telling us about Frederick Tillis and his amazing work, and I'm looking forward to even hearing more of his music. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Solomon Leonard: Thank you.

Lee Koonce: Next up, I'm pleased to present bass vocalist Edwin Jhamal Davis. Edwin was the 2019 first-place winner of the NAMM competition, and he received his master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Edwin is an active performer on stages around the world. Let's hear him perform two pieces. First up, an aria from Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert the Devil. The title translates to Nuns Who Rest Under the Cold Stone, Do You Hear Me? That will be followed by O Del Mio Amato Ben from A Love Cycle by Marques Garrett.

Both pieces are performed by Edwin Jhamal Davis with Mitchell Cirker on piano.

[MUSIC - Edwin Jhamal Davis with Mitchell Cirker on piano: Giacomo Meyerbeer's Robert the Devil]

[MUSIC - Edwin Jhamal Davis with Mitchell Cirker on piano: O Del Mio Amato Ben from A Love Cycle by Marques Garrett]

Lee Koonce: That was bass Edward Jhamal Davis and pianist Mitchell Cirker performing O Del Mio Amato Ben by Marques Garrett. Before that, Meyerbeer's Nuns Who Rest Under this Cold Stone from the opera Robert the Devil. Now we'll speak a little bit With Edwin Jhamal Davis, who joined us live here in the studios at WQXR. Edwin, thank you so much for being with us today and for sharing your extraordinary artistry. I read somewhere, won't tell you where, but that you studied biology and chemistry.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Yes.

Lee Koonce: So how did you make your way to voice? Tell us about that journey.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Ooh. I went into undergrad convinced I was gonna be a chemistry major.

Lee Koonce: With the voice that you have, you thought that. [laughs]

Edwin Jhamal Davis: I was not really aware of the instrument. It was my first voice teacher, Phyllis Lewis-Hale, who also happens to be a member of NAMM.

Lee Koonce: Which we're going to talk about in just a minute.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: She heard me sing my choral audition, and she was like, "Edwin, you must nurture this voice." I was just like, "No, I am going to be a surgical oncologist or a neurosurgeon." I was dead set on being a surgeon specifically but somehow or another, music dug its fingers into me.

Lee Koonce: Music won. We are glad that you stuck with the Voice. We are really, really glad you were. A couple years ago, the national first place winner of the National Association of Negro Musicians' competition, which is an historic organization, over 100 years old. What does winning that particular award mean to you?

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Oh, my God. At first, I was unsure of the breadth of the impact of this organization, and to know that this is something that all of the Black greats have come through.

Lee Koonce: Name some of them. I mean, they're--

Edwin Jhamal Davis: For one, the winning on the centennial of the organization. It was founded in 1919.

Lee Koonce: That's right.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: I won in 2019, the same time that Marian Anderson, the first winner, won. To me, I was overwhelming by emotion. I was just like, "Oh, my God, me? You chose me?" I could not have imagined that something like NAMM would have put me at the vantage point of so many--

Lee Koonce: Catapulted your career, and so many people have gone on from that award-

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Absolutely.

Lee Koonce: -to do such great things.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: I made my Met debut this season.

Lee Koonce: And your Lincoln Center debut this season.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Yes, and Lincoln Center debut this season. Then returned to Carnegie Hall, it's just like, "Oh, my God."

Lee Koonce: What a wonderful story.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Yes, but you always find surprisingly kind of like attending an HBCU, you always find people who are affiliated with NAMM everywhere.

Lee Koonce: Everywhere. That's right.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: I love it.

Lee Koonce: That's right. Edwin, thank you so much for your amazing performance and for your conversation today.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Koonce: Best wishes to you.

Edwin Jhamal Davis: Thank you.

Lee Koonce: It's time for a quick break now, and when we return, we'll meet our third winner, flutist Terry Andrews, and hear more from Solomon and Edwin here on the Young Artist Showcase. Welcome back. I'm Lee Koonce, and you're listening to the Young Artists Showcase. Tonight we are featuring three winners of the National Association of Negro Musicians' competition. Next, we'll hear flutist Terry Andrews, who recently received his doctorate of Musical arts from the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and pianist Dan Velicer.

They'll perform Valerie Coleman's Wish Sonatine, a dramatic tone poem that depicts the Middle Passage in which Africans cross the Atlantic by tall ships to be sold into slavery. Then we'll hear Desolation for solo flute by Avraham Eilam-Amzallag.

[MUSIC - Terry Andrews with Dan Velicer on piano: Valerie Coleman's Wish Sonatine]

[MUSIC - Terry Andrews with Dan Velicer on piano: Desolation for solo flute by Avraham Eilam-Amzallag]

Lee Koonce: That was a beautiful performance of Valerie Coleman's Wish Sonatine performed by Terry Andrews on flute and Dan Velicer on piano. Terry, it's really wonderful to speak with you today. Thank you for sharing your amazing performance with our audience. You perform Valerie Coleman's Wish Sonatine for us. Can you tell us what this particular piece, Wish Sonatine, means to you?

Terry Andrews: Yes. This was actually Valerie Coleman's first piece for flute and piano that she wrote. This piece depicts the Middle Passage, where slaves were transported for goods or whatever, and it's just such a beautiful piece of music. Even there are notes where I go from a really low note to a really high, like a concert D, like one of the highest notes of my instrument. Those represent whips. Whips, like the slaves being whipped. There's little cadenzas where it's more so like I'm screeching, I'm screaming, I'm fighting to be, to stay on land, to stay in my homeland.

This is a very, very powerful piece.

Lee Koonce: It is. On a video of images you collected from the Black Lives Movement that I had this wonderful opportunity to see, you used Eilam-Amzallag's Desolation as a backdrop for conveying the powerful sentiments of that time period. Tell us how you came to pair that piece with those images and the Black Lives Movement.

Terry Andrews: I was asked by Dr. Jennifer Graham to perform in the NFA summer series. I was like, "What shall I do?" This was at the height of the Black Lives Matter Movement. I was trying to find Pieces that I could pair with that and this was one of the ones that came to mind. Just the definition of Desolation alone, it's a state of complete emptiness or destruction or anguish, misery or loneliness. Those definitions really spoke to me and I was recording this on the campus where I did my master's and police officers questioning me whether I should actually be on that campus.

I was like, "Yes, I went to school here," but it's--

Lee Koonce: As you're playing it, you're thinking of all those things, I would imagine.

Terry Andrews: Yes, and all the things that were going on in the media and the news.

Lee Koonce: Yes, that was a very powerful time for everybody, and you play that piece so powerfully and so beautifully. Thank you so much, Terry, for joining us today. Congratulations and good luck to you.

Terry Andrews: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Lee Koonce: Up next, we'll return to bass Edwin Jhamal Davis with pianist Mitchell Cirker. They'll perform Calvary, a traditional Negro spiritual arranged by Dave Ragland.

[MUSIC - Edwin Jhamal Davis with Mitchell Cirker on piano: Calvary, by Dave Ragland]

Lee Koonce: That was Calvary, a traditional Negro spiritual arranged by Dave Ragland. It was performed by bass Edwin Jhamal Davis and pianist Mitchell Cirker. For our final piece on this edition of the Young Artist Showcase, here's something a little different. We'll hear violist Solomon Leonard performing his own composition Remembrances with the New Standard Band.

[MUSIC - Solomon Leonard, viola with New Standard Band: Remembrances by Leonard]

[applause]

Lee Koonce: That was viola Solomon Leonard performing his own composition Remembrances with the New Standard Band. Thank you for joining us on this edition of the Young Artist Showcase, which is generously underwritten on WQXR by The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation, and here are a few words from Terry McGraw.

Terry McGraw: The arts don't know what borders are and talent doesn't know what borders are, and the world is rich. As we tap into these young people wherever they are, wherever they reside, and the arts is such a beautiful way to get involved. It is so much fun being a part of Young Artists Showcase and being able to present these people wherever they are.

Lee Koonce: Thank you, Terry. Many thanks to our program producer, Laura Boyman. Our session engineer is Irene Trudel, and our generous program underwriter is the Harold W. McGraw Jr. Family Foundation. I'm Lee Koonce. Until next time, good night.

 

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