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Classically Black
Black classical musicians have been composing substantial music for centuries. This February, we shined the spotlight on a score… one every weekday… of great composers with roots in Africa.We met Le Mozart Noir… the man who not only was a world-famous swordsman, but an acknowledged master of the violin bow and the composing quill, playing duets with Queen Marie Antoinette. We visited a city of Creole musical dynasties, when New Orleans was home to the finest orchestras in the new world. We rediscovered a woman tirelessly composing in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, many of whose works were likewise rediscovered: in a dilapidated downstate summer house, leading to a worldwide wave of interest in her music. And we heard a sinfonietta by a 2oth century New York composer… who himself was named after an Afro-English composer whose interest in American music made him a 19th century fan favorite in the U.S.Looking for the music? TSPR Music Director Ken Zahnle shares all the compositions he featured on Ovation on a Spotify playlist.

Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges

Tri States Public Radio | By Ken Zahnle
Published January 31, 2023 at 3:11 PM CST
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Violinist, composer, conductor, impresario, swordsman, duelist, cavalry commander, royal bodyguard, revolutionary… le Mozart Noir.

All of the above describes one of the most amazing characters in history… let alone music history… that you may never have heard of. Joseph Bologne, chevalier de Saint-Georges was born in the French-held Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe, son of a married French businessman and his Senegalese slave. Sent off to school in France at age seven, and to fencing academy at 13, he studied… and quickly mastered… the science of fencing and the art of the violin. By 20 he was a chevalier… a member of Louis XVI’s bodyguard… and famed composers had written for or dedicated works to him.

Famed as a fencer throughout Europe… he would use that as a diplomatic skill with the likes of the Prince of Wales to argue for the abolition of slavery… he was also renowned in France for his musical skills as a composer: writing quartets, operas, symphonies, and a dozen violin concertos; as a virtuoso; and as a conductor, organizing orchestras and commissioning Haydn’s Paris symphonies.

Beloved by the monarchy, he was a favorite of (and played private duets with) queen Marie-Antoinette. Nevertheless, he was also a hero of the Revolution, commanding the first all-black regiment in Europe, the Legion St.-Georges. He partook in perhaps one last revolutionary adventure (accounts differ) to Haiti, before re-devoting himself to perfecting his artistry on the violin.

Joseph Bologne… Chevalier de Saint-Georges… and classically black.
Ken Zahnle
Ken oversees all music programming for Tri States Public Radio, hosting the morning classical music program Ovation, the Saturday nigh jazz survey After Hours, and engineering recorded performances for TSPR. Ken is a native of Highland Park, IL, with degrees in music and broadcasting from Western Illinois University. Teenage years listening to Chicago's old-school fine arts and classical radio stations, coupled with a few months spinning discs on a college residence hall radio station, led him onto the primrose career path of radio. Ken has deep roots at TSPR, starting as a student staff announcer and host, before becoming news director for a group of local radio stations, then Program Director for Tri States Audio Information Services. When he's not deep within our studios and music library, he continues his over quarter-century of assisting Macomb High School's Marching Band.
See stories by Ken Zahnle