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.

José Silvestre White Lafitte

Tri States Public Radio | By Ken Zahnle

Published February 6, 2023 at 6:00 AM CST

José Silvestre White Lafitte, also known as Joseph White, was born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1836, to French and Afro-Cuban parents.

Taught at first by his father, an amateur violinist, White’s first recital was accompanied by none other than the famed New Orleans pianist and abolitionist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who happened to be touring Cuba at the time. Gottschalk was so impressed he proceeded to raise money to help send the 18-year-old to Paris for further training.

José White did indeed reach the Paris Conservatory, winning the Prix de Rome in violin, and becoming a French citizen in 1870.

White’s 30 or so compositions for violin, including virtuoso-level etudes and a technically challenging concerto, were chiefly written for himself and his very own Stradivarius… the 1737 ‘Swansong,” so-called because it’s believed to be Stradivari’s last.

He toured the world as a concert artist of the first order. While visiting the Americas White took a detour for over a decade in Brazil, where he served as court musician and Director of the Imperial Conservatory for the Emperor Pedro II in Rio de Janeiro, before returning to Paris for good.

But cosmopolitan as White was, he is still remembered in Cuba… where a music conservatory is named after him, and his beloved miniature La bella Cubana is an unofficial national song.

Jose White Lafitte… classically black.