Monday Musicale with the Maestro – July 6, 2020 – American Music for American Audiences

American Music for American Audiences

I am an American music patriot. On every Durham Symphony Orchestra concert during my 11-year tenure, I have programmed at least one work by an American composer. In fact, we are the first American orchestra to do that consistently for more than three seasons!  One would think that every orchestra in this country would program American music on a regular basis.  But here is a sad fact:  Americans still underrate their own musical heritage, and the unspoken creed often seems to be that the only good composer is a dead, European one.  

The corollary to the assumption above is that the only good conductor is a foreign one. Often, it’s the case that “Joe Smith” need not apply. Not “classy” enough.  Not “exotic” enough.  Not “good for fundraising purposes.”  When the great American conductor John Mauceri was interviewed to be Music Director of a Mid-West orchestra, his audition concert created a sensation.  After the performance, however, he was told by someone on the Board of Directors (the people who choose the music director) that he wasn’t under serious consideration because “We really want the accent!”  

This mindset has had a seriously adverse effect on our culture. The conductors are the ones who choose the music to be played and the only American orchestral music that foreign-born conductors hear growing up is Rhapsody in Blue.  Is it any wonder, then, that they have little interest in conducting music which they have no allegiance to and little affection for?

Such is the climate in which I’ve spent fifty years conducting and championing the cause of great American music alongside the best of the European tradition. I have done so as a composer, as the only African-American music director of a symphony in the history of the American South—and as one of the very few American-born music directors in this country.  I hope this helps explain why I am a dyed-in-the-wool American Music PATRIOT.

In honor of Independence Day weekend, we are offering a video from our NC Music and All That Jazz concert that took place in Durham’s Carolina Theatre on April 2, 2016.  The featured work is by Salisbury, NC native Charles Vardell.  Here is his lively setting of a Tar Heel dance tune, “Joe Clark Steps Out.”  

William Henry Curry
Music Director, Durham Symphony Orchestra

Durham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro William Henry Curry
Joe Clark Steps Out – Charles Vardell
The Carolina Theater
NC Music and All That Jazz Concert
April 2, 2016

Celebrating Maestro Curry’s 50 years conducting

& 11 years with the Durham Symphony!