T. J. Anderson, Jr. (b. August 17, 1928): Legendary, iconic, and innovative musician, composer, arranger, ensemble leader, conductor, orchestrator, producer, and teacher

SOUND PROJECTIONS

 

AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE

 

EDITOR:  KOFI NATAMBU

 

FALL, 2020

 

 

 

VOLUME NINE    NUMBER TWO

B.B. KING 

  

Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:

BRANDEE YOUNGER

(October 31-November 6)

CHRIS DAVE

(November 7-13)

MATANA ROBERTS 

(November 14-20)

NATE SMITH 

(November 21-27)

T.J. ANDERSON, JR. 

(November 28--December 4)

KEYON HARROLD

(December 5-11)

NICOLE MITCHELL

(December 12-18)

OLLY WILSON

(December 19-25)

KENDRICK LAMAR

(December 26-January 1)

JONATHAN BAILEY HOLLAND 

(January 2-8)

WENDELL LOGAN

(January 9-15)

DONAL FOX

(January 16-22)

 

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tj-anderson-mn0001612079/biography 

 

T.J. Anderson, Jr.  

(b. August 17, 1928)

Artist Biography by Blair Johnston

 

To say that Thomas Jefferson Anderson, or T.J. Anderson as he is commonly known, is one of the best and brightest contemporary Black American musicians would not be altogether fair: he has proven himself one of the best and brightest American musicians of any kind. Anderson is a prominent academic figure, a valuable composer, a gifted teacher, and a fine conductor; his success has been an inspiration to two generations of Black American classical musicians.

Anderson started professional life not as a classical musician, but a jazz performer. Born in Coatesville, PA, in 1928, Anderson learned the piano as a child and before long was a traveling jazz pianist. He could not, however, resist the magnet of formal training and took a series of music degrees, including a doctorate, from West Virginia State College, Penn State University, and the University of Iowa, where he studied with Richard Hervig. Anderson joined the music faculty of Lanston University in Oklahoma in 1958 and then Tennessee State University in 1963. In 1964, he felt the pull of the magnet of training once again and spent the summer at Aspen studying composition with Darius Milhaud.

After three seasons as composer-in-residence for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, he was named the head of music at Tufts University in Medford, MA, where he remained -- from 1978 on as an Austin Fletcher Professor of Music -- until 1990. During the 1990s, Anderson divided his time between a number of visiting faculty and composer-in-residence engagements (Northwestern University, Ohio State University, and California State University, for starters) and private composition at his home in North Carolina. He was twice honored with a Fromm Foundation Award (1964 and 1971) and in 1988-1989, received a Guggenheim Fellowship. His Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored completion and orchestration of Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha was warmly received at its 1972 premiere and did much to revitalize Joplin's reputation.

Anderson's music is built from an eclectic base that allows the influence of avant-garde music, 20th century Western art music, African spirituals, jazz, African, and even Asian music as Anderson feels each individual piece demands. He has composed an operetta (The Shell Fairy, 1977), an opera (Soldier Boy, Soldier, 1982), and also three symphonies of various types: the Classical Symphony of 1961, the Symphony in 3 Movements, In Memoriam J.F.K. (1964), and the Chamber Symphony of 1968. Beyond this, he has favored the common musical genres -- orchestral, chamber, vocal -- nearly equally, except perhaps solo piano, which is represented by only about a half-dozen works.

Anderson has remained active in retirement as a composer and especially as a scholar: he is the author of 13 articles, several of which have appeared since 1990. For the 2010-2011 season, he was resident composer at the Durham Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina. A work for solo trombone, In Memoriam Albert Lee Murray, appeared in 2013 and was included on the album George Lewis: The Will to Adorn, released by the International Contemporary Ensemble in 2017. Anderson has been frequently honored in later life. In 2005, he received an honorary doctorate from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and two years later, Tufts honored him with a similar degree. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2005 and inducted into the Music Educators National Conference Hall of Fame in 2008. Anderson continues to live and work at his home in North Carolina.

 

http://www.tjandersonmusic.com/bio.html 

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Photo: Andrew Ross

T.J. Anderson is one of the leading composers of his generation. He was born August 17, 1928 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania and received degrees from West Virginia State College, Penn State University, and a Ph.D in Composition from the University of Iowa. He also holds several honorary degrees. After serving as Chairman of the Department of Music at Tufts University for eight years, Thomas Jefferson Anderson became Austin Fletcher Professor of Music and in 1990 became Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus. He now lives in Atlanta, Georgia where he devotes full time to writing music.

He studied composition with George Ceiga, Philip Bezanson, Richard Hervig, and Darius Milhaud. Anderson is well known for his orchestration of Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha which premiered in Atlanta in 1972. His first opera, Soldier Boy, Soldier based on a libretto by Leon Forrest, was commissioned by Indiana University. The opera, Walker was commissioned by the Boston Athenaeum with a libretto by Derek Walcott and Slip Knot, commissioned by the School of Music, Northwestern University is based on a historical paper by T.H. Breen with libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa.

Mark DeVoto, in program notes for a concert of T.J. Anderson's music honoring the 100th year of Tufts University's Department of Music, says: "T.J. Anderson, as all the world knows him, has spent a long and distinguished career composing music reflecting a global awareness of human experience in the twentieth century, synthesizing Eastern and Western classical traditions with the Black experience in America. His works reveal inspiration from a variety of classical styles ranging from Purcell to Alban Berg, and techniques and forms ranging from the serially rigorous to the freely improvisatory, all arrayed in a stylistic panorama that is wholly "his own". Elliott Schwartz states, “Many African-American composers of “classical” music are confronted by a unique set of experiences – influences from two worlds, so to speak. Thomas Jefferson Anderson has successfully balanced both; his music speaks to, and draws from, the heritage of European Art Music and the culture of Black America.” (Elliott Schwartz and Barney Childs, ed: Contemporary Composers on Contemporary Music, 1998) “T.J.Anderson has characterized his role as a composer as that of a musical anthropologist, that is a documentor, interpreter, and re-creator of culture” (Greg A. Steinke: International Dictionary of Black Composers, 1999)

T.J. Anderson takes pride in collaborations with his distinguished friends Leon Forrest, writer and Richard Hunt, sculptor. A number of his works have been premiered in the artist's studio. As a lecturer, consultant, and visiting composer, he has appeared in institutions in the United States, Brazil, Germany, France, and Switzerland. He has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Arts, the Djerassi Foundation, the National Humanities Center(their first composer), and a scholar-in- residence at the Rockefeller Center for the Creative Arts, Bellagio, Italy. Anderson was singularly honored when Bruce Alfred Thompson devoted his Ph.D. dissertation at Indiana University to an analysis of his works. Other honors include an honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and a Rockefeller Center Foundation grant, Composer-in- Residence Program (with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw, Conductor). At his 60th birthday celebration at Harvard University, letters from Robert Shaw and Sir Michael Tippett were read. In March, 1997, he was honored as a founder and first president of the National Black Music Caucus with concert of his music. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, May 18, 2005.

Professor Timothy Breen read the following citation when Anderson received an honorary degree from Northwestern University in 2002: “If music is the universal language, you are a celestial linguist. With artistry, craft and imagination, you translate your understanding of the human experience into melody, reaching our hearts by way of our ears.”

Blair Johnston writing in Answers.com said that "He has proven himself one of the best and brightest American musicians of any kind."

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| Home | Biography | Vitae | Works | Honors | Reviews | Information |

http://www.tjandersonmusic.com/works.html

 

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Chronological List of Compositions by T.J. Anderson

Works from American Composers Edition are Available Through www.composers.com

1958-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-present

Pyknon Overture. Orchestra. 1958 Ph.D dissertation Univ.of Iowa, 1958

String Quartet, No. 1 String quartet. 1958. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Iowa, 1958.

Introduction and Allegro Orchestra. 1959. 1st performance: Oklahoma City Symphony
Orchestra: Guy Fraser Harrison, Conductor. 1959.
Duration: 8 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition.

New Dances Orchestra 1960. 1st performance: Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra: Guy Fraser Harrison, Conductor. 1960.
Duration: 17 min.
Publisher: N.Y: Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1967.

Trio Concertante Clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and band. 1960. 1st performance: Langston University Band: W.E. Sims, Conductor. 1961
Published: N.Y.: American Composers' Alliance.

Classical Symphony Orchestra. 1961. Commission: Oklahoma City Junior Symphony Orchestra: 1st performance: Oklahoma City Junior Symphony Orchestra: T. Burns Westman, Conductor. 1961.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition

Six Pieces for Clarinet and chamber Orchestra Clarinet and chamber orchestra. 1962.
Dedication: Earl Thomas and the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra. 1st performance: Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra: Guy Fraser Harrison,
Conductor; Earl Thomas, soloist. 1962.
Duration: 13 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1966.

Five Bagatelles for Oboe, Violin , and Harpsichord Harpsichord, oboe, and violin. 1963.
Dedication: Louise Clarkson. 1st performance: Norman, Oklahoma: Catherine Paulu, Oboe; Norman Paulu, Violin.; Leonard Klein,Harpsichord. 1963. Duration: 8 1/2 min
Publisher: N.Y. Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1963.

Five Etudes and a Fancy for Woodwind Quintet Woodwind quintet. 1964. 1st performance. Aspen School of Music, Aspen , Colorado: Student group,
Harry Schulman, Conductor. 1964.
Duration: 9 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1967.

Symphony in Three Movements. Orchestra. 1964. 1st performance: Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra; Guy Fraser Harrison, Conductor. 1964.
Duration: 15 min.
Publisher: N.Y.; Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1966

Squares, an Essay for Orchestra. Orchestra. 1965. Commission: West Virginia State College for its 75th anniversary. 1st performance: Chickasha, OK: Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra, Guy Fraser Harrison, Conductor. 1966.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1966.
Recording : Columbia, M33434. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Paul Freeman, Conductor. 1975.

Five Portraitures of Two People Piano music (4 hands). 1965. Dedication: Bill and Fay Bolcom. 1st performance. Nashville, TN. First Unitarian Church. Enid Katahn, Lucien Stark, piano. 1968.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1967.

Personals Cantata for chorus and brass septet, with narrator. 1966. Text: Arna Bontemps. Commission: Fisk University for its 100th anniversary. 1st performance: Nashville, TN.: Fisk University Choir, Robert Jones, Conductor. 1966
Duration: 15 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. Recording: Fisk University Choir, Robert Jones, Conductor. 1966.

Connections, a Fantasy for String Quintet. String quintet. 1966. Dedication: Darius Milhaud. 1st performance: Nashville, TN: Blair String Quartet and Ovid Collins, violist. 1968.
Duration: 12 min.
Published: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1967.

Rotations Band Music. 1967. Dedication: Tennessee State University Band.
Duration: 15 min.
Published: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1967.

In Memoriam Zach Walker Band Music. 1968. Dedication: Coatesville (PA) High School Band: Donald Suter, Conductor, 1969.
Duration: 4 min., 30 sec.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1968.

Chamber Symphony Chamber Orchestra. 1968. Commission: Thor Johnson.
1st performance: Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Thor Johnson , Conductor. 1969.
Duration: 14 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. Recording: CRI. SD 258, Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, James Dixon, Conductor.

Variations on a Theme by M.B. Tolson. . Cantata: soprano, violin, cello, alto sax
trumpet, trombone, piano. 1969. Dedication: Lois Anderson.
1st performance: Bernadine Oliphint, soprano; Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players; T.J. Anderson, conductor. 1970.
Duration: 15 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1969. Recording: Nonesuch H 71303. The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg, Conductor.: Jan De Gaetani, mezzo soprano. 1974.

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Intervals Orchestra. 1970-71. Commission: Robert Shaw. Notes: This work contains seven sets. Set I is to be performed before intermission, Sets II-VI are to be performed during intermission and Set VII is to be performed after intermission.
This piece may be performed using sets I and VII under the title, Set VIII. Sets II through VI may also be performed separately.

Duration: 1 hr.,
Publisher: N.Y., Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1972.

Transitions Chamber ensemble: flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet trombone, violin, viola, cello, piano. 1971. Commission: Berkshire
Music Center and the Fromm Music Foundation. 1st performance:
Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Charles Darden, Conductor. 1971.
Duration: 13 min., 30 sec.
Publisher: N.Y. Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1971.

Watermelon Piano. 1971. Dedication: Dominique-Rene de Lerma. 1st performance: Bloomington, IN., Hans Boepple, piano. 1972.
Duration: 6 min.
Publisher: Berlin, Germany, Bote & Bock. 1971.

This House. Male Glee Club, four chromatic pitch pipes. 1971. Dedication: Wendell Whalum and the Morehouse College Glee Club.
1st performance: Atlanta, GA Morehouse College Glee Club, Wendell Whalum, Conductor. 1972.
Duration: 5 min., 30 sec. Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1978.

Block Songs Solo soprano, children's toys (commercial musical busy box), chromatic pitch pipe, and jack-in-the-box. 1972. Text: Pearl Lomax . Dedication: T.J., Janet, and Anita Anderson. 1st performance: Boston, MA. Boston Musica Viva, Elsa Charlston, soprano. 1976.
Duration: 12 min.
Publisher N.Y. Composers Facsimile Edition. 1972.

Swing Set Duo: Clarinet and piano. 1972. Commission: Thomas Ayres. 1st performance: Iowa City, University of Iowa: Thomas Ayres, clarinet: Carol Lesniak, piano. 1973.
Duration: 12 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1972.

Beyond Silence Tenor, clarinet, trombone, viola, cello, and piano. 1973 Text: Pauline Hanson. 1st performance: Cambridge, MA. Busch-Reisinger Museum; Boston Musica Viva, Richard Pittman, Conductor.; Scott MacAllister, tenor. 1973,
Duration: 15 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1973.

Five Easy Pieces Trio (violin, piano, Jew's harp). 1974. 1st performance: Winchester, MA, Winchester Music Club: T.J. Anderson, III, violin:, Janet Anderson, piano: Anita Anderson, African rattle. 1974.
Duration: 5 min.
Publisher: N.Y: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1974.

In Memoriam Malcolm X Voice and orchestra. 1974. Text: Robert Hayden. Commission: The Symphony of the New World (NY) for Betty Allen. 1st perfromance:
N.Y. City, Lincoln Center; Symphony of the New World; Leon Thompson, conductor, Betty Allen, Mezzo soprano
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1974.

Horizons' 76 Soprano and orchestra. 1975. Text: Milton Kessler. Commission: National Endowment for the Arts for the Bicentennial of the U.S.
Duration: 1 hr.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1975.

Fanfare Solo trumpet and four mini-bands. 1976.
Commission: American Wind Symphony of Western Pennsylvania. 1st performance: Norfolk, VA: American Wind Symphony, Robert Boudreau, Conductor. 1976.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y. C.F. Peters. 1976.

The Shell Fairy an operetta in two acts. Story by Chester M. Pierce, adaptation and lyrics by Sara S. Beattie. 4 soloists, chorus, dances and piano or chamber orchestra. 1976-1977.
Duration: 1 hr.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1977.

Minstrel Man Bass trombone & percussion (one player). 1978. Commission: Thomas Everett Dedication: Thomas Everett. 1st performance: Providence, RI, Brown University; Thomas Everett, bass trombone. 1978.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher :Germany, Bote & Bock. 1977.

Variations on a Theme by Alban Berg Viola and piano. 1977. 1st performance: Cambridge,MA, Longy School of Music; Marcus Thompson, viola; Seth Carlin, piano. 1978.
Duration: 12 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1977.

Re-Creation Three readers, dancer, violin, cello, trumpet, alto saxophone, piano, and drums. Sign language, with gestures reflected in dance. 1978. Text: Leon Forrest; Commission: Richard Hunt. 1st performance: Chicago, IL, T.J. Anderson, Conductor. 1978.
Duration: 30 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1978.

Street Song Piano. 1977. Dedication: Vivian Taylor. 1st performance: N.Y., Alice Tully Hall: Vivian Taylor, piano. 1979.
Duration: 8 min.
Publisher: Germany, Bote & Bock. 1979.

Play Me Something Piano, small , hands. 1979. Dedication: Kathy Mortenson. 1st performance: Eric Fieleke, piano. Weston, MA, Music School at Rivers. 1979.
(Used in class piano at Chico State University)
Duration: 5 sec. to 5 min.
Publisher: N.Y.,Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1979.

Messages, A Creole Fantasy . Orchestra. 1979. Dedication: To the family of Ila Marshall and David De Witt Turpeau.
Duration: 14 min.
1st performance: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Robert Shaw, Conductor. 1980.
Published: Carl Fischer, Inc.

Spirituals Orchestra, jazz quartet, chorus, children's choir, tenor, and narrator. 1979. Commission: Union United Methodist Church, Boston, MA Text: Robert Hayden;
Visuals: Stanley Madeja. 1st performance: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw,
Conductor; William Brown, Soloist. 1982. For dedication of the Martin Luther King , Jr.
Center for Social Change.
Duration: 35 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1979.

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Vocalise Violin and harp. 1980. Commission: Richard Hunt for Jacques &
Gail Israelivitch. 1st performance: Webster College, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 23, 1980.
Jacques Israelivitch, violin; Gail Israelivitch, harp.
Duration: 8 min.
Publisher: N.Y. Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1980.

Soldier Boy, Soldier , Opera in Two Acts.
Orchestra, chorus, jazz combo, 5 soloists. 1982. Commission: Indiana University and
the National Endowment for the Arts. Libretto: Leon Forrest.
Duration: An evening's entertainment

1st performance: Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana. Oct.23,30, Nov.6, 1982.
Robert Porco, Conductor; Alan Brody, Director; Max Rothlisberger, Stage Design.
Lead voices: William Brown, tenor; Alteouise DeVaugn, mezzo soprano; Kevin Maynor,
bass; Roberta Gumbel, soprano; and William Johnson, spoken part.
Publisher: N.Y. Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1982.

Inaugural Piece Three trumpets and three trombones. 1982. Dedication: Bernard
and Marie Harleston. 1st performance: N.Y., NY. City College: The City College Brass Ensemble for the Inauguration of Bernard Harleston as President, City College,
Feb. 18, 1982.
Published: N.Y. Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1982.

Jonestown Children's choir and piano. 1982. Text: T.J. Anderson III
Commission: Chicago Children's Choir for Christopher Moore.
Duration: 3.5 min.
1st perfomance: Boston, MA, Boston University: Children of Black Persuasion: John Ross, Conductor. May 6, 1984.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition, 1982.

Call and Response Solo piano. 1982. Dedication: Ila Turpeau, on her 100th Birthday.
Duration: 3 min.
1st performance: Medford, MA, Tufts University: Mildred Freiberg, piano. 1982.
Publisher: Germany, Bote & Bock. 1983.

Urban Recollections Solo piano. 1971, l977, 1982. NOTE: Watermelon, Street Song, and Call and Response can be performed collectively under the title, Urban Recollections. Duration: 17 min. Publisher: Bote & Bock. 1983.

Thomas Jefferson's Minstrels Solo baritone, male glee club and jazz band. 1982.
Text: T.J. Anderson . 1st performance: Medford, MA. Tufts University, April 15-16, 1983.
Sherwood Collins, Director: Robert Honeysucker, baritone: members of the Tufts Chorale,
Tufts Jazz Band; T.J. Anderson, Conductor.
Duration: An evening's entertainment.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1982.

Intermezzi B flat soprano clarinet, E flat alto saxophone, and piano. 1983.
NOTE: May also be performed as solo compositions using the titles, Intermezzo for Solo
Clarinet Intermezzo for Solo Saxophone, and Intermezzo for Solo Piano . As three solo pieces, use the title, Intermezzi .
Dedication: Laurie, Karen & Timmy Rahmeier. 1st performance: Intermezzo for Solo Saxophone, Intermezzo for Solo Piano, and
Intermezzi at Quartz Mt., Oklahoma; Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute; Eric Ginsberg,
clarinet; Jerry Neil Smith, alto saxophone; Peggy Payne, piano. June 6, 1984. 1st
performance: Intermezzo for Solo Clarinet Laurie Rahmeier, Medford, MA., Tufts
University. Sept. 2, 1983.
Recording: Intermezzi. Videmus Plays Music of African-American Composers. (T.J.
Anderson, David Baker, Olly Wilson, Donal Fox). New World Records. June, 1992.
Duration: 6 min.
Publisher: Germany: Bote & Bock. 1983.

Thomas Jefferson's Orbiting Minstrels and Contraband. A 21st Century celebration of
19th Century form. String quartet, woodwind quintet, jazz sextet, dancer, soprano,
computer, visuals, and keyboard synthesizer.
Text: Stephen Soreff; Poem: T.J. Anderson III.; Spoken Text and Scientific Adviser:
Herbert Friedman; Visuals: Stanley Madeja; Sculptures: Richard Hunt; Electronic tape:
Erik Lindgren. 1st performance: Feb. 12, 1986. DeKalb, IL, Northern Illinois University.
Steven Squires, Conductor; Lee Cloud, Musical Coordinator; Diane Ragains, soprano;
Danielle Jay, dancer; Geoffrey Madeja, technical director; Herbert Nelson, media consultant;
Dennis De Lap, graphic desighn; Donna Flanagan, production assistant; the Shanghai
String Quartet; 12 musicians, 3 technicians.
Duration: 1 hr., 35 min.
Publisher: N.Y : Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1984.

Sunstar for solo trumpet and cassette recorder.
Dedication: Dizzy Gillespie.
Duration: 10 min., 15 sec.
1st performance: May, 1994. Columbus, Ohio State
University; Richard Burkart, tpt; Peter Tender, electronics
Publisher: N.Y. Composers’ Facsimile Edition, 1984

In Memoriam: Graham Wootton for organ
1st performance: Joyce Galantic, Medford, MA. Tufts University, Goddard Chapel.
Nov. 25, 1985. (Memorial Services for Graham Wootton)
Duration: 1 min., 10 sec.
Publisher: unpublished manuscript.

Fanfare for School Volunteers for Boston. 3 - B flat trumpets, 4 - F horns,
3 - trombones, tuba, tenor drum. 1st performance: Boston, MA. City Hall Plaza,
with the composer conducting students from the New England Conservatory.
May, 1986.
Duration: 4.5 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1986.

Bridging and Branching . Flute and double bass
Commission: Richard Hunt in celebration of his 50th birthday, for Joseph Guastafeste.
1st performance: Chicago, IL. Studio of Richard Hunt. May, 1986. Lynn Leifer, flute;
Joseph Guastafeste, double bass.
Duration: 8 1/2 min.
Publisher: Germany, Bote and Bock. 1987.

What Time Is It? Boys' choir and jazz orchestra. Commission: ASCAP Foundation
and Meet the Composer, Inc. to honor a great American, Harold Arlen.
Text: T.J. Anderson. 1st performance: New York, NY, Cooper Union; Harlem Boys'
Choir and the American Jazz Orchestra; T.J. Anderson, conductor. Dec. 1, 1986.
Duration: 15 1/2 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: American Composers' Edition.

Concerto For Two Violins and Chamber Orchestra
Commission: Richard Hunt for Elliott Golub, Nisanne Graff, and Music of the Baroque;
Thomas Wikman, conductor. 1st performance: Chicago, Studio of Richard Hunt.
May 29, 1988. Elliott Golub, Nisanne Graff, violins: Music of the Baroque, Thomas
Wikman , conductor.
Duration: 13 1/2 min.
Publisher: N.Y. : American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Echoes For oboe and bassoon. Commission: Pennsylvania State New Music
Performance Project, for Barry Kroeker and Daryl Durran. 1st performance: University Park, PA. Pennsylvania State University. April 6, 1988.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: Germany, Bote and Bock. 1991.

Ivesiana For Violin, Cello, and Piano. Commission: The Music School at Rivers. 1988
1st performance: Weston, MA. The Music School a Rivers; Jeana Lee, violin, Dana Feder,
cello, Jonathan Jao, piano. April 10, 1988.
Duration: 13 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Chamber Concerto (Remembrances) Commission: Cleveland State University for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony; Edwin London, Music Director. 1st performance:
Cleveland, OH. Oct. 30, 1988.
Duration: 14 min.
Recording Albany (Troy 303). 1998
Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, Music Director and Conductor
Publisher: N.Y.: American Composers' Edition, Inc.

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Passacaglia and Blues for piano Dedication: Robert and Joyce Corrigan. 1st performance: Winchester, MA, Aki Shimazu Gifford, piano. June 10, 1990.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Songs of Illumination (Song Cycle) for Soprano, Tenor, and Piano
Text: T.J. Anderson III Dedication: Richard Hunt, and made possible by a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. 1st performances: Medford, MA. Tufts University.
April 27, 1990.; Chicago, IL, Studio of Richard Hunt, April 29, 1990. Performers: Pamela Dillard, mezzo-soprano; William Brown, tenor: Vivian Taylor, piano.
Recording: Centaur (CRC2357) : Louise Toppin, Soprano: Bill Brown, Tenor; Vivian Taylor, piano.
Duration: 40 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Ancestral Voices for Bass Voice and Piano. Dedication: Nicholas Isherwood.
Text: Leon Forrest. 1st performance: Festival "Musica", Strasbourg, France; Nicholas
Isherwood, bass; Eric Watson, piano. September 21, 1990.
Duration: 8 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Dear John, Dear Coltrane for Choir and Piano. Commission: University of Massachusetts
Amherst. 1989 Text: Michael Harper. 1st performance: Minneapolis, School of Music,
University of Minnesota; Student chorus with T.J. Anderson conducting. December 4, 1990.
Duration: 6 min.
Publisher: N.Y. : American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Bahia, Bahia for Chamber Orchestra. Dedication: Alda and Jamary Oliveira, made possible by a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation. 1990
1st performance: North Carolina Symphony, Gerhardt Zimmerman, Conductor. Mar.20 & 21, 1998.
Duration: 13 min.
Publisher: N.Y., American Composers' Edition, Inc.

What Ever Happened to the Big Bands? Alto Saxophone, Trumpet, and Trombone.
1991. Dedication: Fletcher Henderson 1st performance: Chapel Hill, NC University of North Carolina. William Bish, alto saxophone; James E. Ketch, trumpet; Keith Jackson,
trombone. March 15, 1992.
Duration: 12 1/2 min.
Publisher: Germany, Bote and Bock.

Egyptian Diary Soprano and two percussionists. 1991. Text: Pauline Kaldas
1st performance: Retrospective concert, Northwestern University; Evanston, IL
Karen Pittman, soprano, Matt Gold and John Sherborne, percussion. Chicago, IL,
The Green Mill. April 26, 1992.
Duration: 16 min.
Publisher: N.Y.: Composers' Facsimile Edition. 1991.

Walker , a chamber opera ; commissioned by the Boston Athenaeum with a
libretto by Derek Walcott. For soprano, contralto, tenor, 2 baritone voices and
bass; Violin, viola, flute+ piccolo, clarinet + bass clarinet, alto saxophone,
trumpet, trombone, piano, and percussion station. 1992.
1st performance: Concert version with 2 pianos: Boston, MA., Boston Athenaeum
December, 9, 1993. Directed by Donna Roll. Featuring Robert Honeysucker, Andrea Bradford, Frank W. Ragsdale, Elisabeth F. Borg, Matthew Malloy, & Vincent
Stringer. Pianists: Thomas Enman, Lisa Harer de Calvo.
Duration: 1 hr., 15 min.
Publisher: Boston Athenaeum

Spirit songs for cello and piano. 1993.
Commission: Yo Yo Ma
Duration: 19 min., 30 sec.
Publisher: N.Y.: American Composers' Edition, Inc.
1st performance: Durham, NC. Mallarme Chamber Players, January 18, 2004 Timothy Holley, cello; Thomas Warburton, piano.

Here in the Flesh Hymn for congregation and piano. 1993
Text: John Masefield
In: Singing the Living Tradition. (p.321) Boston, Beacon Press,
Unitarian Universalist Association, 1993
Duration: 2 min.
1st Performance: U.U.A. General Assembly, Charlotte, NC.
General Assembly Choir, Composer conducting. June 28, 1993

7 Cabaret Songs for jazz singer, flute, viola, cello and piano. 1994
Text: Harryette Mullen
Dedication: To William Grant Still on his centennial year
Commission: Mallarme Chamber Players for Nnenna Freelon
with assistance by the North Carolina Arts Council. 1st performance:
Dayton, Ohio, Wright State University, September 16, 1995, Nnenna
Freelon and the Mallarme Chamber Players.
Duration: 20 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers' Edition, Inc.

Grace for string quartet. 1994
Commission: Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Duration: 20 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers' Edition, Inc.

A Musical Kaddish "In Sea" for John Zimarowski for soprano and piano.
1995. Text: Mark L. Belletini.
Dedication: Louise Toppin
Written for The Aids Quilt Songbook
1st performance: Durham, N.C., Duke University, November 12, 1995.
Louise Toppin, soprano; John O'Brien, pianist.
Duration: 8 min., 15 sec.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers' Alliance.

Spring Song for solo harp. 1996
Dedication: Anita and Kevin Downing
1st performance: Chapel Hill, NC Windy Hill Inn. April 20, 1996
Anita Burroughs-Price, harp
Duration: 3 min.
Manuscript

Broke Baroque for violin and piano. 1996
Commission: James Dargan
1st performance: Atlanta, GA, National Black Music Caucus. 25th Anniversary
Celebration. A Musical Tribute to T.J. Anderson, March 7, 1997
James Dargan, violin; Terrance McKnight, piano.
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers' Alliance

First Love : a song for Nadia for voice and combo. 1997
Dedication: Nadia Gifford
Words: Lois Anderson
Duration: 3 min.
Publisher: N.Y.American Composers' Alliance

Huh! (What did you say?) . for three performing stations; solo violin, [ violin, viola, and cello],solo clarinet.
1997
Dedication: National Humanities Center
1st performance, April 9, 1999. Ciompi String Quartet & Donald Oehler, clarinetist.
Duration: 15 min.
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp, Distributor)

Shouts (forty improvisations for Eva-Maria) for oboe, violin, cello, and piano. 1997.
Commission: Eva-Maria Worthington
1st performance: Arts Club, Chicago, Nov.1, 1997. Robert Morgan, oboe; Elliott Golub, violin; Barbara Haffner, cello; Andrea Swan, piano
Duration: 14 min.
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp, Distributor)

Boogie Woogie Fantasy (for solo piano). 1997
Dedication: Leon Forrest
1st performance: 70th Birthday concert, Duke University. Sept.11, 1998. Thomas Warburton, piano.
Duration: 14:00 min.
Publisher: N.Y., American Composers Edition.

b Bop in 2 (for alto saxophone and 2 recorders). 1998
Commission: David Pituch
1st performance: Krakow, Poland. March 2, 1998. David Pituch, alto saxophone
Duration: 10 min.
Publisher: N.Y., American Composers Edition

The Suit (for a cappella male choir). 1998
Words: Philip Levine
Commission: Chanticleer
1st performance: San Francisco, Calif. March 4 & 7, 1999. Craig Johnson, Artistic Director
Duration: 8:00 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers Edition

Aurelia, In Memoriam for solo violin. 1999
Dedication: To the memory of Aurelia Whittington Franklin
1st performance: National Humanities Center. April 9, 1999.
Eric Pritchard, violin
Duration: 1:35 min.
Publisher: Mss

Words My Mother Taught Me, A Song Cycle for Soprano and Piano. 2000
Poems: Anita Turpeau Anderson
Dedication: Pamela L. Kelly
1st performance: San Diego. July 2, 2000
Pamela L. Kelly, soprano
Duration: 12:00 min.
Publisher: N.Y. , American Composers Edition

Notes From a Friend for flute, B flat clarinet, viola, andcello. 2000
Commission: Harvard Musical Association
Julia Scolnik, flute; Jonathan Cohler, clarinet; Laura Bossert, viola; Terry King, cello.
Dedication, Sherwood Bain, Malcolm Freiberg, and Chester M.Pierce
Duration: 15:00 min.
1st performance: Boston, Harvard Musical Association. Fall,2000
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers Edition.

Slip Knot: an opera in two acts. 2000.
Based on a historical paper by T.H. Breen.
Commission: Northwestern University School of Music
Music by T.J. Anderson; Libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa.
Staged workshop, Rhoda Levine, director.
Evanston, IL. Northwestern University, April 26, 2003.
Duration: An evening’s entertainment.
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp, Distributor)

Game Play: for flute, viola, cello, and harp. 2001.
Commission: Eleanor C. Eisenmenger for 20th Century Unlimited,
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1st performance: Santa Fe, St. Francis Auditorium, September 14, 2002.
Marianne Gedigian, flute; Christof Huebner, viola; Mihail Jojatu, cello;
Ann Hobson Pilot, harp.
Duration: 16:00 minutes
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers Edition, Inc.

Watermelon Revisited for piano. 2001.
Commission: Guy Livingston
Performed by Guy Livingston, piano, and recorded Don’t Panic! 60 seconds for piano.
(Wergo-6649-2) 2001
Duration: 60 sec.
Rights with Guy Livingston.

Slavery Documents 2 (cantata) 2002.
Commission: Cantata Singers & Ensemble
In Memory of Donald Sur.
Loren Schweninger; Consultant
1st performance: Boston, Symphony Hall, March 17, 2002.
Cantata Singers and Ensemble; David Hoose, Music Director.
Karyl Ryczek, soprano; Cynthia Clarey, mezzo-soprano; Rockland Osgood, tenor;
David Arnold, baritone.
Duration: 35 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers Edition, Inc.

Boogie Woogie Concertante for improvised solo piano, wind instruments and percussion.
2003.
Commission: Harvard University Wind Ensemble, Thomas Everett, Director.
Dedicated to Dean Archie C. Epps, III (1937-2003).
1st performance: Cambridge, Harvard University, December 6, 2003.
Harvard University Wind Ensemble, Thomas Everett, Director; Donal Fox, piano.
Duration: 25 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers Edition, 2003.

Gospel Ghost for flute and piano. 2003.
Commission: Brooks de Wetter-Smith, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Duration: 12:30 min.
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp, Distributor)

A Song for Elma Lewis for soprano and piano. 2004.
Dedication: To Elma Lewis and Duke Ellington.
Words by T.J. Anderson III; Music by T.J. Anderson, Jr.
Duration: 5 min.
Publisher: N.Y. American Composers Edition, 2004.

A Sonic Language for soprano and piano. 2005
Dedication: William Brown
Words: T.J. Anderson III
1st performance: Greenville, NC, East Carolina University, March 2006; Louise Toppin, soprano; John O'Brien, piano
Duration: 8:00
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp, distributor)

Ragged Edge for Chamber Orchestra (A Ragtime Reflection) 2005
Dedication: Samuel A. Floyd, Jr.
1st performance: Chicago, Harris Theater for Music and Dance March 15, 2006;
Kirk Edward Smith, Conductor, New Black Music Repertory Ensemble.
Duration: 12:00
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp., distributor)

Pavane for the Wind for soprano and piano. 2006
Dedication: For the memory of Paul Grayson
Words: Yasmine Aida Kaldas Anderson
1st performance: Winchester, MA May, 2006; Nancy Kurtz, soprano: Dan Loscher, piano.
Duration: 4:20
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp., distributor)

Fragments for improvised piano and large orchestra (A J.S. Bach/T.S. Monk Fantasy. 2006
Commission: University of Iowa School of Music on its 100th Anniversary
1st performance: Iowa City, University of Iowa, October, 2006: William L. Jones, conductor; Donal Fox, piano
Duration: 20:00
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp., distributor)

Tuftonia's Call and Response for Bass Quintet and percussion. 2007
Commission: Tufts University Music Dept. for the opening of the Perry & Marty Granoff Music Center.
1st performance: Medford, MA, Tufts University. Feb. 2007: Innovata Brass and Robert Schulz, percussion
Duration; 2:30
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (Subito Music Corp., distributor)

In Memoriam, Gerald Gill for piano. 2007
1st performance: Medford, MA, Tufts University. Nov. 2007 John McDonald, piano
Duration: 2:30
Mss., not published

In Memoriam, Jennifer Anne Fitzgerald for solo trumpet 2007
Duration: 1:30
Mss., not published

Bird Songs for Soprano and Rock Band. Words: T.J.. Anderson III. 2008
Commission: Erik Lindgren for Bird Songs of the Mesozoic
First performance: Tufts University, Medford, MA October 5, 2008.
D’Anna Fortunato, mezzo soprano: Michael Bierylo, guitar:
Ken Field, Alto sax; Carol Namkoong, synthesizer: Erik Lindgren, piano
Program: In Honor of the Composer’s 80th birthday.
Funded in part by the Composers’ Assistance Program of the American
Music Center.
Duration: 16:30 minutes
Publisher: T.J.. Anderson Music Publishing

Jazz Overtones for Tenor Sax, Harp, and Percussion. 2008
Commission: Eleanor Eisenmenger for “Ann Hobson Pilot, a great artist
whom we all esteem”
First performance: Tufts University, Medford Ma, October 5, 2008
R. Prentice Pilot, tenor sax; Ann Hobson Pilot, harp: Will Hudgins, percussion.
Duration: 12:00 minutes
Publisher: T.J.. Anderson Music Publishing

The Wedding Party for poet, Visuals, Voice, Violin, E flat Alto Sax and
B flat tenor sax. 2008
Inspired by painting, “The Wedding Party” by LaDell
Poetry: Billy Dean Hester; Visuals, Catherine Carter
Dedication: Bill and Susanna Hester
First performance: Chapel Hill, NC, Franklin Hotel, January 9, 2009
Billy Dean Hester, poet; Matthew A. Chicurel, violin, Cameron Morgan, alto sax: ,
Ira Wiggins, tenor sax; Ellen William, voice
Duration: 20:00 minutes
Publisher: T.J.. Anderson Music Publishing

In Memoriam John Hope Franklin for solo trumpet. 2009
First performance: Duke University Chapel. Durham, NC June 11,2009
James Ketch, trumpet.
Duration: 3:00
Mss. not published

Shells for soprano and piano. Words by Elye Alexander. 2009.
Dedication: To Stafford Wing on his retirement from the Music Department,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
First performance: Music Building, UNC, October 17, 2009.
Terry Rhodes, soprano, Wonmin Kim, piano.
Duration: 7:00
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing

Georgian Ragas for E flat Alto sax and B flat trumpet. 2009
Dedication: George Rosen on his 90th birthday
First performance: Walsh Gallery, Chicago, IL February 8, 2009
David Pituch, Alto sax: Ross Beacraft, Trumpet.
Duration: 7:00
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing

In Memoriam, Dan Pollitt for accordion. 2010
First performance: Community Church of Chapel Hill U U , April 17, 2010
David Di Giuseppe, accordion
Duration: 3:00
Mss. not published

In Front of My Eyes: An Obama Celebration for Soprano, Flute (Piccolo and Alto Flute), B flat Clarinet (Base Clarinet), Horn in F, B flat Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Cello, Piano (Keyboard Synthesizer) , and Jazz Drum set (Marimba). 2010
Commission: University of North Carolina - Department of Music, Ackland Art
Museum, and the N.C. Arts Council
First Performance: Louise Toppin, Soprano and Stefan Litwin, conducting the New Music
Ensemble, November 13, 2010. Presented by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Music Department and Music on the Hill, Memorial Hall, UNC
Duration: 25:00 minutes, approx.
Publisher: T.J. Anderson Music Publishing, 2010

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RECORDINGS

Chamber Symphony. London Philharmonic Orchestra. James Dixon, Conductor. Composers' Recordings, Inc. (CRI-SD258), 1970.

Variations on a Theme by M.B. Tolson. Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, Arthur Weisberg, Director; Jan de Gaetani, soprano. Nonesuch Records, New American Music, Vol. V. (No.H-71303), 1974. Review : Music Time 117 (1597): 242

Squares   Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Paul Freeman, Conductor. Columbia Records (Music of Black Composers)., 1974.

Classic Rags and Ragtime Songs. Conducted & with annotations by T.J. Anderson. The Smithsonian Collection, 1974.

Intermezzi. Videmus Plays Music of African-American Composers. (T.J. Anderson, David Baker, Olly Wilson, Donal Fox). New World Records, June 1992.

Songs of Illumination.: Louise Toppin, soprano; William Brown, tenor; Vivian Taylor, piano. Centaur (CRC2375), 1998.

Chamber Concerto (Remembrance): Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Edwin London, Conductor. Albany Records, Troy 303 Dec. 1998.

b Bop in 2: David Pituch, saxophone. Arizona University Recordings (Contemporary Composer and Performer Series). 2000

7 Cabaret Songs in: “It Won’t Be The Same River” Capstone (CPS8684).
Nnenna Freelon, Jazz Vocalist and Mallarme Chamber Players. 2001.

Watermelon Revisited in: “Don’t Panic: 60 Seconds for Piano”: Guy Livingston, piano. Wergo (WER6649 2) 2001.

Words My Mother Taught Me in: Patterson, Willis, Comp. & ed. Second Anthology of Art Songs by Black American Composers. (Score and CD) 2002 Juanelle Celaire, soprano; Kathryn Goodson, pianist; CD #1. Publisher: N.Y., American Composers Edition

Spirit Songs for cello and piano in: “Songs for the Soul”:, Bonnie Thron, cello, Thomas Warburton, piano. Mallarme Chamber Players. Videmus Records Albany Records (Troy 1190.) 2010

In Front of My Eyes: an Obama Celebration Music:T.J. Anderson; Songs: Robert Pinsky; Louise Toppin, Soprano; Stefan Litwin, Conductor; UNC New Music Ensemble 11-13-2010

 

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ORCHESTRATIONS

Treemonisha, an opera in 3 acts; words and music by ScottJoplin. 1911
World premiere performance. January 28, 1972, Atlanta, GA
Orchestration: T.J. Anderson
Conductor: Robert Shaw
Editors: T.J. Anderson & William Bolcom
Wendell Whalum, Chorus Director
Katherine Dunham, Stage Director
Opera features Alpha Floyd, Simon Estes, Seth McCoy, LouiseParker, Joseph Bias, the African-American Workshop of Morehouse College, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Score available from American Composers Alliance
Recording of this performance with interviews available toNPR stations through satellite, 2000

MUSIC SOURCES

Bote & Bock
Contact: Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.
35 East 21st Street
New York, NY 10010-6212
212-358-5300
www.boosey.com

Composers' Facsimile Edition
American Composers' Alliance
648 Broadway, Rm. 803
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 212-362-8900
E- Mail: info@composers.com
www.composers.com

C.F. Peters Corporation
373 Park Ave. South
New York, NY 10016

Carl Fischer, Inc.
62 Cooper Square
New York, NY 10003
212-777-0900

Boston Athenaeum
10 1/2 Beacon St.
Boston, MA 02108

Arizona University Recordings
at The Pine Grove Studios
10750 East Prince Road
Tucson, Arizona 85749
www.AURec.com

MUSA (Music of the United States of America)
Burton Memorial Tower 606
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1270
Tel: 734-647-4580

T.J. Anderson Music Publishing (BMI)
Distributor: Subito Music Corp.
60 Depot St.
Verona, NJ 07044
Tel: 973-857-3440
E-mail: mail@subitomusic.com

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 http://www.tjandersonmusic.com/reviews.html

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T.J. ANDERSON, JR.

"His own style of composition is audaciously modern, while preserving a deeply felt lyricism in melodic patterns, his harmonies are taut and intense without abandoning the basic tonal frame; his contrapuntal usages suggest folklike ensembles; but he freely varies his techniques according to the character of each particular piece."

—Nicholas Sloninsky, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians

"T.J. Anderson, one of the distinguished black musicians of the century"

—Elma Lewis,  The Cultural Post

"His music reflects the influence of both jazz and post-Webern styles. His predilection for rhythmic complexities and his imaginative use of instrumental colour are particularly noteworthy."

—Eileen Southern , The New Grove's Dictionary...

"Anderson is an individual and compelling compositional voice; he need not fear the charge of "eclecticism" because his own personality is so strong that it can unify diverse elements"

—Richard Dyer,  Boston Globe

In commenting on the composer's musical ideas (Feb. 1997), Michael Dyson, Public Intellectual and Rap authority, says: 

"That's like a T.J. Anderson composition in itself. Every distinct part has its organizing principle. The simultaneity of which doesn't divert them from pursuing that goal and yet, the harmony is found in their articulation of an ideal."

"T.J. Anderson is a virtuoso composer, if such a term exists."
—Henderson, William McCranor. I, Elvis; Confessions of a Counterfeit King. N.Y., Boulevard Books, 1997., p. 92

"My paintings have been influenced by many individual artists and non artists....A few of them are Hale Woodruff.. T.J. Anderson (composer/art patron)"

— Charles A. Young

"Since 1983, T.J. Anderson has been experimenting with a new approach to composition-what he refers to as an "orbiting" procedure in which each performer in an ensemble plays his or her part independantly of the others."
—Floyd, Samuel A. The Power of Black Music. N.Y., Oxford U. Pr., 1995

Dedication: Vignettte #2 - "with respect to Mozart, Haydn, and T.J. Anderson"
(Williams, James. "We've Got What You Need" (Recording: Evidence 22207-2, 1998)

Acknowledgements, p.xviii: "The teachers and mentors who started me on my academic career were, first and foremost, T.J. Anderson..." (Porter, Lewis. John Coltrane, His Life and Music Univ.of Michigan Press, 1998)

"To say that T.J. Anderson is one of the best contemporary black American musicians would not be altogether fair: he has proven himself one of the best and brightest American musicians of any kind." Blair Johnston. Answers.com. 2006 Blair Johnston. All Music Guide

BAHIA, BAHIA
"Anderson ... is one of our country's most significant composers"
John W. Lambert
Spectator

b Bop in 2
"The solo instrument in this work undergoes such a transformation and multiplication, that its natural sound is woven into an entire "spider web" of sound"
Dziennik Polski
Cracow Polish Daily

SOLDIER BOY, SOLDIER
Opera, ACA

"its eminence as an important recent work may be due to the lack of comparable pieces, but the eminence is there nonetheless"
—Boston Globe


TRANSITIONS
Chamber ensemble, ACA

"terse and sharp with instrumental contrasts added up to give a first impression of being a series of rhapsodic fragments, conveyed in brilliant splayed sound, and, not just incidently, strikingly performed"
—Louis Snyder
The Christian Science Monitor


WATERMELON
Piano, Bote & Bock

"The highlight of the concert was T.J. Anderson's superb Watermelon, a composition I would describe as Afro-Webern"
—Ran Blake
Bay State Banner

MINSTREL MAN
Trombone and percussion; 1 player, Bote & Bock
"A colorful and touching piece about outward joy and inner anguish of minstrels"
—Richard Dyer
Boston Globe


STREET SONG
Piano, Bote & Bock

"... Sophisticated handling of materials drawn from black children's game songs. The large audience received it with great enthusiasm"
—Raoul Abdul
Amsterdam News


BEYOND SILENCE
Chamber ensemble and tenor, ACA

"Anderson's instrumental music had a life and unity of its own"
—David Noble
Boston Herald American


IN MEMORIAM ZACH WALKER
Band, ACA

"Anderson was quite successful in achieving his purpose, reflecting the world and society today"
—Coatesville Record


BLOCK SONGS
Soprano and children's toys, ACA

"...far beyond the mere demonstration of composing technique, and that alone made it stand out at this World Music Days festival"
—Donal Henahan
New York Times


TREEMONISHA
Opera by Scott Joplin, Premiere performance

"orchestrated the opera in a style that follows the one example of Joplin's orchestration that has come down to us"
—Harold C. Schonberg
New York Times


CLASSIC RAGS AND RAGTIME SONGS
Conductor

The Smithsonian Collection,
Record #P12974
Excerpt from the opera, Treemonisha.

"of the new ragtime recordings, this one is definitely the best"
—Stereo Review


CHAMBER SYMPHONY
Orchestra, ACA

CRI Record #SD258

"with small disjointed motives, involving both counterpoint and massed dissonant chords, is his own, and his sound also has individuality"
—Chappell White
The Atlanta Journal


VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY M.B. TOLSON
Chamber ensemble, ACA

Nonesuch Record #H-71303

"The work is lyrical, frequently agonized outcry, apparently induced by the situation of the black man in the world today"
—Bob Rohrer
The Atlanta Constitution


SQUARES
Orchestra, ACA

Columbia Records #M33434

"was a dazzling exhibition of dodecaphonic techniques"

—Newsweek 

On Don’t Panic! 60 seconds for Piano: Various Composers
& Works, Guy Livingston, piano.

“What are my favorite pieces? I can’t tell you because they change from day to day, minute by minute. For starters, there’s the jazzy jaggedness of T.J. Anderson’s Watermelon Revisited…”

—Classics Today Online www.classicstoday.com, September 2001

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| Home | Biography | Vitae | Works | Honors | Reviews | Information |

 

http://www.tjandersonmusic.com/honors.html 

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TJ and Tufts President Larry Bacow, 2007

The Rockefeller Foundation

John Simon Guggenheim Foundation

The Danforth Foundation

The Mellon Foundation

The Copley Foundation

American Music Center

MacDowell Colony

National Black Music Caucus

Lincoln University

Tufts University Distinguished
Teaching Award

National Association of
Negro Musicians

Phi Beta Kappa

N.A.A.C.P.

Pennsylvania State University

Yaddo

American Academy of Arts and Letters

National Association for the Study and Performance of African/American Music Music Educators National Conference (MENC)

University of Iowa

TJ and Tony Randall Recieving Degrees at Northwestern, 2002

National Endowment for the Arts

Berkshire Music Center

Fromm Foundation

ASCAP

Yo Yo Ma

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Cleveland Chamber Symphony

Meet the Composer

Richard Hunt

Fisk University

Mallarme Chamber Players

West Virginia State College

Thor Johnson

Robert Shaw

Thomas Ayres

Symphony of the New World

American Wind Symphony

Union United Methodist Church, Boston

Cantata Singers, Inc.

Harvard University

University of North Carolina

Brooks de Wetter-Smith

University of Iowa School of Music

Tufts University Music Department

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Department of Music and Ackland Art Museum

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 https://www.bates.edu/commencement/annual/y2005/honorands/thomas-jefferson-anderson/

Commencement  

May 27-30, 2005

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Commencement: Thomas Jefferson Anderson

Thomas Jefferson Anderson

Presented by Barry A. G. Greenfield ’56, Trustee, for Doctor of Music

 

Composer Thomas Jefferson “T.J.” Anderson demonstrates the capacity of a single soul to encompass the world. Embracing European modernism and myriad expressions of the African American experience, Anderson transcends both to explore new realms of sound, interdisciplinarity, and audience interaction. “Anderson is an individual and compelling compositional voice,” wrote a Boston Globe critic, whose “personality is so strong that it can unify diverse elements.” Anderson may be best-known for his orchestration of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha, which premiered in 1972, but his original compositions constitute a towering contribution to music. His first significant work was an overture finished in 1958, and his most recent is 2004’s A Song for Elma Lewis, a setting for soprano and piano of a text by his son, T.J. Anderson III. The 80-plus works in between include operas, symphonies and other orchestral works, band music, all manner of chamber music, and choral pieces. Anderson’s “predilection for rhythmic complexity and his imaginative use of instrumental color are particularly notable,” as The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians states, but equally remarkable are his boldness with form and his generosity toward performers and audiences. Born in Coatesville, Pa., Anderson began playing the violin as a child and quickly manifested an omnivorous musical appetite; at age 14 he spent a summer on the road as a trumpeter with a jazz band. Anderson received degrees from West Virginia State College, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Iowa, where he earned a Ph.D. in composition. He has taught in public school and academe, and retired in 1990 as the Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus at Tufts University. From 1968 to 1971, he was composer in residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and his many commissions include works for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and cellist Yo Yo Ma. A resident of Chapel Hill, N.C., Anderson now composes full time. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters on May 18.

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Keep Reading

• Address by Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson
• Citation for Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson
• Thomas Jefferson Anderson video

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T.J. Anderson

Information about T.J. Anderson

Interview Date

February 19, 2012

Profession

Category:

MusicMakers

Occupation(s):

Music Composer

Favorites

Favorite Color:

Gray

Favorite Food:

Bread (Rolls)

Favorite Time of Year:

Spring

Favorite Vacation Spot:

San Diego, California

Favorite Quote:

It Is What It Is

Birthplace

Born:

8/17/1928

Birth Location:

Coatesville, Pennsylvania

See how T.J. Anderson is related to other HistoryMakers

Biography

Composer and music professor Thomas Jefferson Anderson was born on August 17, 1928 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Anderson attended West Virginia State College and Pennsylvania State University, where he received his B.A. degree in music and his M.Ed. degree in music education in 1950 and 1951, respectively. Anderson studied composition at the Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music in 1954, before obtaining his Ph.D. degree in music at the University of Iowa in 1958. Anderson also studied composition at the Aspen School of Music in 1964 with Darius Milhaud

Anderson was hired as a professor of music at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, where he became chair of the music department. He then served as a music professor at Tennessee State University before being named composer-in-residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in 1969. During his three year tenure at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Anderson orchestrated the Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha and in 1972, the first full staging of Joplin’s work took place. His first opera, Soldier Boy, based on a libretto by writer Leon Forrest, was commissioned by Indiana University. After a visiting professorship at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Anderson was hired as a professor of music and department chair at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts in 1972.

As a lecturer, consultant, and visiting composer, Anderson has taught at institutions in the United States, Brazil, Germany, France and Switzerland. He has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Virginia Center for the Arts, the Djerassi Foundation, the National Humanities Center and a scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Center for the Creative Arts in Bellagio, Italy. Anderson has accumulated numerous honors throughout his illustrious career, including an honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. He has received honorary doctorates from the College of Holy Cross, West Virginia State College, Bridgewater State College, St. Augustine’s College, Northwestern University, Bates College and Tufts University. In March, 1997, he was honored as a founder and first president of the National Black Music Caucus, now NASPAAM with a concert of his music. In 2005, Anderson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Anderson and his wife, Lois, have three adult children, a son, Thomas J. Anderson and two daughters, Janet Anderson and Anita Anderson Downing.

T.J. Anderson was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on February 19, 2012.

T.J. Anderson describes his first experiences with classical music and jazz

As a little kid you listened to classical music and you (unclear) (simultaneous)?

(Simultaneous) Oh yes, very much so. I listened to--in fact that's about all we had in our home, classical music. I mean I, I--and when I say classical music I'm talking about the classical music of Paul Robeson, I'm talking about the classical music of Philippa Schuyler, I'm talking about the classical music of people like James Weldon Johnson, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, I'm talking about the classical music of William Grant Still, William Dawson [William Levi Dawson]. I, I mean there's a whole litany of people that--that were represented in my--who I consider myself a descendant of. In other words, I'm a descendant of this tradition. So, that's the way I fit in. And was the violin your first instrument in terms of? The violin and then the piano, and then trumpet, then saxophone, then bassoon, I mean that's the order that they, they came.

So when did you say you started playing the violin?

About six years old, six or seven, yeah seven.

You're about six--seven, okay. Now, this is both--you were living both in the Coatesville [Pennsylvania] area, right?

No, this is Washington, D.C.

D.C., okay. Then you moved to Coatesville?

I moved to Coatesville when I failed seventh grade (unclear).

Right, you--okay. Well what happened during that seventh grade period?

I discovered jazz (laughter).

That's basically it?

Yeah, that's basically it. And, and of course that's where my mother [Anita Turpeau Anderson] and I parted, you know. And I can understand what she wanted, but what she wanted wasn't what I wanted inf- and as it turned out it ben- it saved my life, really. I mean in other words, I'd have been just another classical composer, I mean and that's not what I lucked up on. I lucked up on finding the Howard Theatre [Washington, D.C.]. I lucked up on hearing Jimmie Lunceford,

Duke Ellington, Earl Hines [Earl "Fatha" Hines]. I mean just all the big bands that came through there with package

shows, I heard. And so when I went to Cincinnati [Ohio] and went to the Cotton Club I, I was prepared for, for, for the bands that I would hear there, and they were traveling bands and, and that was a great movement. In fact, I--I've written a piece called 'What Ever Happened to the Big Bands?' [T.J. Anderson]. It's for trumpet, saxophone and trombone, and it's a tribute too. It's published in Berlin [Germany], but it's a tribute to that music, I mean.

Did you have a favorite band?

No, they were all different. Lunceford's band was a show band and Lunceford's band had great arrangements. Sy Oliver was the arranger of that band. And they could swing just about any piece, classical pieces, spirituals and everything. And it was a very interesting band. But the band for soloists was Duke Ellington, because he had Cootie Williams and the trombone player Brown, Lawrence

Brown. Just, just a lot of outstanding, you know,

players in--in his band. The alto saxophone player, Johnny Hodges was with him. And so that when I--when I thought, thought about soloists, although they were playing Duke Ellington tunes, the soloist really was the things I was fascinated by. In other words, that's improvisation. I just became in love with improvisation, and to this day I'm fascinated by improvisation.

Okay. So your favorite--was

Johnny Hodges one of your favorite?

Oh Hodges, Ben Webster was in the band. So I mean there're a lot of people, there wasn't any one favorite. It was--I think that's, that's one of the things I try to avoid is having one favorite of anything. I think there's too much richness out there to settle in on one. And I think you can like two or three

Tape: 1

• Slating of T.J. Anderson's interview
• T.J. Anderson lists his favorites
• T.J. Anderson describes his mother's family background
• T.J. Anderson talks about his maternal grandfather's career as a minister
• T.J. Anderson remembers his early interest in jazz music
• T.J. Anderson describes his mother's upbringing
• T.J. Anderson describes his father's family background
• T.J. Anderson describes his father's education
• T.J. Anderson describes his parents' personalities and who he takes after
• T.J. Anderson lists his siblings
• T.J. Anderson describes sights, sounds and smells of his childhood
• T.J. Anderson remembers his early exposure to classical music

Tape: 2

• T.J. Anderson describes his first experiences with classical music and jazz
• T.J. Anderson remembers S. Horace Scott Senior High School in Coatesville, Pennsylvania
• T.J. Anderson recalls his extracurricular activities at S. Horace Scott Senior High School
• T.J. Anderson remembers his influential high school teachers
• T.J. Anderson recalls his decision to attend West Virginia State College in Institute, West Virginia
• T.J. Anderson remembers his influences at West Virginia State College
• T.J. Anderson describes his involvement in the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity
• T.J. Anderson remembers his father's friendship with Paul Robeson
• T.J. Anderson remembers his family's political activities
• T.J. Anderson remembers Roland Hayes and Marian Anderson

Tape: 3

• T.J. Anderson reflects upon the relationship between language, rhythm and culture
• T.J. Anderson describes his experiences of Eurocentrism in academic music curricula
• T.J. Anderson describes the start of his Ph.D. degree program
• T.J. Anderson remembers completing his Ph.D. at the University of Iowa
• T.J. Anderson talks about his creative process
• T.J. Anderson describes his family's reaction to his Ph.D. degree
• T.J. Anderson remembers meeting his wife
• T.J. Anderson recalls meeting Melvin B. Tolson at Langston University
• T.J. Anderson describes Melvin B. Tolson's poetry
• T.J. Anderson remembers teaching at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma

Tape: 4

• T.J. Anderson remembers his mentor, Edward C. Lewis
• T.J. Anderson recalls his introduction to 'Treemonisha'
• T.J. Anderson describes the history of the opera 'Treemonisha'
• T.J. Anderson compares the works of Scott Joplin and George Gershwin
• T.J. Anderson remembers the process of reconstructing 'Treemonisha'
• T.J. Anderson talks about the music of 'Treemonisha'
• T.J. Anderson remembers the first staging of 'Treemonisha'
• T.J. Anderson talks about the role of performers as interpreters
• T.J. Anderson talks about his academic career
• T.J. Anderson describes his accomplishments at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, pt. 1

Tape: 5

• T.J. Anderson describes his accomplishments at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, pt. 2
• T.J. Anderson remembers receiving his first honorary degree
• T.J. Anderson talks about his awards and honors, pt. 1
• T.J. Anderson describes his musical compositions
• T.J. Anderson talks about his awards and honors, pt. 2
• T.J. Anderson remembers meeting William Grant Still
• T.J. Anderson remembers William Levi Dawson
• T.J. Anderson remembers meeting Eubie Blake and Florence Price
• T.J. Anderson describes the importance of black representation in majority universities
• T.J. Anderson talks about racial discrimination in the classical music community

Tape: 6

• T.J. Anderson describes his hopes and concerns for the African American community
• T.J. Anderson reflects upon his life
• T.J. Anderson reflects upon his legacy
• T.J. Anderson reflects upon his relationship with his wife
• T.J. Anderson describes how he would like to be remembered
• T.J. Anderson narrates his photographs

• A2012_045_EAD.pdf
• A2012_045_EAC.pdf

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/arts/music/black-composers-discuss-the-role-of-race.html

Great Divide at the Concert Hall

The International Contemporary Ensemble performing the music of Beethoven and the composer and scholar George Lewis at the 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival. Credit: Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

by William Robin 

August 8, 2014

New York Times

“We’ve been invisible,” the composer T. J. Anderson declared, almost immediately after answering the phone for an interview. “Like Ralph Ellison said, you know: We’re invisible, and any chance we get for exposure is very important.” Ellison, who in his youth aspired to be a composer before turning to literature, might have sympathized with Dr. Anderson’s plight.

At 85, Dr. Anderson is an elder statesman among black composers, and his forceful emphasis on visibility emanates from a career-long experience of exclusion. “It’s inevitable, once you are identified — and you always are identified because of race — there’s a certain different expectation,” he said. “You know that you’re not going to be commissioned by the major artistic institutions like the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera.”

Why do black composers remain on the outskirts of classical music? Along with broader societal prejudices, there are also factors exclusive to the classical world. Past musicians like James P. Johnson and Duke Ellington, who wrote symphonic works alongside playing stride piano and leading a big band, are typically confined to the jazz canon. Black composers have been criticized in both African-American and white intellectual circles for refusing to embrace mainstream commercial trends. The influence of African-Americans on the orchestral tradition is represented more often by Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” than William Grant Still’s “Afro-American” Symphony. And African-American music is often relegated to special events outside the main classical season, like Black History Month concerts or Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations.

Mr. Lewis. Credit: Allison Gannon/Oberlin Conservatory

Dr. Anderson once noted that all black composers were avant-garde because of their ostracism from the establishment. In his music — which can be heard on releases by New World Records and Albany Records — jazz and spirituals undergird a steely modernist language. “Fragments,” a 2006 concerto dedicated to Bach and Thelonious Monk, features an improvised piano solo. In the wind trio “Whatever Happened to the Big Bands?” each instrument plays independent music — the musicians sit as far apart as possible — that orbits around the riffs of the swing era. 

During the interview, Dr. Anderson invoked the harsh legacy of segregation as continuing to divide the concert hall. But younger composers like Jonathan Bailey Holland don’t necessarily share his vigilance. A professor at the Berklee College of Music, Dr. Holland, 40, writes bright music in a post-Copland, Americana tradition. Race is not central to his musical identity. “As an African-American, I have certain experiences that shaped who I am, and that I draw on as a composer,” he said in a recent phone conversation, but added, “I also have experiences growing up in Michigan that shaped who I am as a composer.”

Expectations about how an African-American composer should sound felt confining at the beginning of Dr. Holland’s career. “I really didn’t want to be thought of as a black composer, because I felt like people were going to pigeonhole me or have certain expectations when it came to the music,” he said. “I would make conscious efforts to not include anything in the music that might have any connection to black music, or might somehow suggest something about who I was, which in and of itself is completely not the point of being an artist.” 

Continue reading the main story

The composer and professor Jonathan Bailey Holland.Credit...Sancho Maulion

In March, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performed Dr. Holland’s “Shards of Serenity” as part of the New Music Readings for African-American Composers, an initiative organized by the American Composers Orchestra program EarShot. A languid, shimmering tone poem, “Shards of Serenity” is Dr. Holland’s tribute to a Mies van der Rohe building. “I’ve always responded to visual ideas,” he said. His similarly radiant “Halcyon Sun” is available on a 2011 “American Portraits” album by the Cincinnati Symphony.

Since the Detroit Symphony began its Classical Roots series in 1978, it has advocated for African-American composers, a stance maintained under its music director, Leonard Slatkin. In a phone interview, Mr. Slatkin said that Dr. Holland showed “great talent.” He stressed that though the readings were helpful, no single program was more important for fostering diversity than a broader emphasis on arts education. Mr. Slatkin also hesitated to oversell the wider effect of promoting black composers. He asked: “Is going to hear music written by an African-American meaningful — not just to the regular attendees, but is it meaningful within the African-American community? Does it inspire others to want to follow that? I wish I could answer that question. I don’t know.”

That skepticism about long-term ramifications is exemplified in Dr. Holland’s own history with the orchestra. Nearly 20 years ago, he took part in a similar Detroit program for African-American composers. “It left me wondering: ‘Is this really the right answer? Are we still waiting for something to happen that’s not going to happen?’ ” he said. “It felt a little like being stuck in time.” Though he expressed ambivalence about writing music for select events for black composers, he also acknowledged the rarity of any orchestral opportunity today.

 

Leonard Slatkin with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Children’s Choir. Credit: Ron Warren

Continue reading the main story

Major orchestras, of course, are just one avenue for African-American composition. Black classical music finds its strongest support in nonprofits like the Sphinx Organization and Videmus. These institutions hark back to ensembles like James Reese Europe’s all-black Clef Club Orchestra, which performed at Carnegie Hall in 1912, or the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, an experimental collective founded in 1965. Though the association is more often linked with free jazz, the co-founder Muhal Richard Abrams noted the importance of composition, itself a radical idea for African-American improvisers at the time.

The composer and scholar George Lewis told the story of the association in his monumental 2008 study “A Power Stronger Than Itself.” A longtime member of the collective — known as a trombonist and for his groundbreaking work in electronics — Mr. Lewis also documented the history of how black composers have been excluded from experimental music.

He cited a panel in London in which he palpably felt that racial rift. “They had these ready-made lineages all made up,” he said with a laugh. “They had a black one for me, and they had a white one for the white guy on the panel. So it was like, ‘Well, wait a minute.’ They were very offended when I didn’t put on the suit that didn’t really fit.” A white composer had spoken about the influence of R&B on his own music, Mr. Lewis said, and “it occurred to me that he knew a lot more about Bo Diddley than I did. Why couldn’t that be a part of his lineage, and why couldn’t Andriessen be a part of mine?” 

The pioneering composer Florence Price. Credit:  University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections

Mr. Lewis’s career has gotten a second wind recently, with commissions by youthful groups like the International Contemporary Ensemble. His latest work is “Memex” for orchestra, based on a proto-Internet information system theorized in 1945. “The thing about the memex is that associational memory is nonlinear,” Mr. Lewis said. “You don’t make these changes from A to B to C. It’s more like you can go from anywhere to anywhere.”

“Memex” is a dense masterwork, alternately skittish and pummeling. Mr. Lewis’s latest music is available on Soundcloud.

“If there is a definition of an African-American composer, there isn’t a single profile, there isn’t a single mold,” Mr. Lewis said. “If you look at Tyshawn Sorey, or Daniel Roumain, or if you look at Jessie Montgomery — younger people — these are three very different models of what it means to be a composer.”

T. J. Anderson, an elder statesman among black composers. Credit:  Clyde May

“There’s just no way to make a generalization based on African-American-ness,” he added. “It’s not a category that works.” 

There was a time in classical music when black composers seemed on the cusp of the mainstream. In the 1930s, pioneers like Still and William Dawson wrote symphonies inflected by folk tunes and the blues that were given their premieres by prominent American orchestras. Alain Locke, the spiritual godfather of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote in 1936 that “the Negro has been the main source of America’s popular music, and promises, as we shall see, to become one of the main sources of America’s serious or classical music, at least that part which strives to be natively American and not derivative of European types of music.”

No composer of this era was more impressive than Florence Price, the first black woman to have a work played by a major American orchestra. Price grew up in the Jim Crow South, divorced an abusive husband and had her first symphony performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her Symphony in E minor — available on an Albany recording — is a silvery, post-Romantic work that should be a cornerstone of the American repertory.

At the height of her career, Price tried to convince Serge Koussevitzky — conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra — to program her music. “To begin with,” she wrote in a 1943 letter, “I have two handicaps — those of sex and race. I am a woman; and I have some Negro blood in my veins. I should like to be judged on merit alone.”

The Boston Symphony has yet to play a note of her music.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 10, 2014, Section AR, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Great Divide at the Concert Hall. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._J._Anderson

T. J. Anderson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

T.J. ANDERSON, JR.

Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson, Jr.^[1] (born August 17, 1928) is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator.^[2]

Early life

Born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, Anderson has written over 80 works ranging from operas and symphonies to choral pieces, chamber music, and band music. He has composed commissioned works for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and cellist Yo Yo Ma.^[3]

Education

The beginning of his college education was at West Virginia State University. He then attended Pennsylvania State University and received his bachelor's degree there in music. Afterwards at that same school in 1951 he got his master's degree in music education.^[4] He earned a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Iowa in 1958,^[5] and was Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus at Tufts University, from 1972 to his retirement in 1990.^[6]

Work and musical influence

Anderson worked at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, as a music professor from 1958 to 1963. There, he became the chair of the music department. He was professor of music at Tennessee State University from 1963 to 1969.^[7] While there, he was named composer in residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He had a three-year tenure with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra from 1968 to 1971.^[8]

During the period of time he spent with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Anderson orchestrated Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha,^[8] originally written in 1911. In 1972, Joplin's opera appeared on stage in full for the very first time. The first opera that Anderson wrote was Soldier Boy. This work was based on a libretto by Leon Forrest, who was a good friend of Anderson. Soldier Boy was commissioned by Indiana University.^[9] After it, came other works, such as Walker which was about David Walker, an ant-slavery activist.^[10]

In 1972, Anderson was hired as a professor of music and department chair at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, where he worked until 1990.

In 2002, the Cantata Singers and Ensemble had commissioned Anderson to create an oratorio Slavery Documents 2. The work was based on Donald Sur's Slavery Documents and Loren Schweininger's The Southern Debate Over Slavery.^[10]

Anderson also taught at institutions in France, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany.

Awards and honors

In 1983, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.^[11] In 2007, Tufts University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Music.

Family

Anderson has three children: Janet, Anita, and Thomas J. Anderson, III (who also goes by "T.J."), is a poet and professor of English at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. The younger Anderson is married to Pauline Kaldas, a poet, author, and fellow English professor at Hollins University.

Unitarian Universalist Work

Anderson served from 1986 to 1991 on the commission that produced Singing the Living Tradition, a hymnal published by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1993. He is a member of the U.U. congregation at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Notes

1. 
   

11. Bates College: Citation for Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson Bates College. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

References

• Perkins Holly, Ellistine. Biographies of Black Composers and Songwriters; A Supplementary Textbook. Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1990.

External links

• T.J. Anderson's website
• Bates College: Thomas Jefferson Anderson
• Database of Recorded American Music: Anderson, T.J.
• Interview with T.J. Anderson, January 26, 1987

Randel, Don Michael, ed. (2003). Harvard Dictionary of Music. Belknap Press. pp. 1008. ISBN 9780674011632.

Robin, William (August 8, 2014). "Great Divide at the Concert Hall: Black Composers Discuss the Role of Race". The New York Times. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

Emmett George Price; Tammy L. Kernodle; Horace Maxille (eds.). Encyclopedia of African American Music. 1. p. 230.

T.J. Anderson The History Makers. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

University of Iowa: Alumni & Friends Reunion 2006.

Emeritus Faculty - Tufts Department of Music Tufts University. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

T.J. Anderson Retrieved April 30, 2019.

"Scott Joplin and T.J. Anderson". NPR. January 17, 2005. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

Forrest, Leon (2007). Williams, Dana A. (ed.). Conversations with Leon Forrest (1st ed.). University Press of Mississippi. p. xvi. ISBN 978-1-57806-989-7.

"'Runaway, Runaways' from 'Slavery Documents 2'". NPR. January 15, 2006. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

https://africlassical.blogspot.com/2007/10/t-j-anderson-african-american-composer.html

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

T. J. Anderson, African American Composer (b.1928)

(Photo of T J Anderson used by permission of the composer}

This biography of T. J. Anderson has been compiled by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor of Music at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin. Prof. De Lerma is the prior Director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College Chicago. He has researched and written on Black classical composers for four decades. T. J. Anderson is a member of the American Composers Alliance, whose website devotes a page to his compositions. The composer's own website is http://www2.emji.net/tjanderson/index.html The Works page contains a chronological list of his compositions.

Popularly known as T. J. Anderson, Thomas Jefferson Anderson, Jr. was born in Coatesville PA in 1928, but grew up in Washington DC where, at age five, he began the study of piano with his mother, a professional musician and daughter of a Methodist minister. His father was professor of education at Howard University. Later he took up the violin and the trumpet as a student in junior high school (and subsequently the horn and double bass). He attended the public schools there, in Cincinnati, and his hometown. During his high school years, he had his own jazz ensemble. In 1950 he earned his B.M. degree at West Virginia State College. In these years, he toured during vacations with Tate Wilburn’s Jazz Orchestra while living in Cincinnati with his grandmother. While in North Carolina he was active with his own trio, playing the trumpet, joined by Dannie Richmond on drums and Jackie McLean on saxophone. He acquired his M.M.E. degree in 1951 at Pennsylvania State University where he was a student of George Ceiga. It was during this time he became active in non-jazz composition. From then until 1954, he taught school in High Point NC, spending the summer of 1954 studying with T. Scott Huston at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He joined the faculty of West Virginia State College in 1955 for one year, moving then to the University of Iowa for his Ph.D. (1958), a student there of Philip Bezanson and Richard Hervig. The year after graduating he published his first work, Introduction and Allegro (ACA, 1959). His next faculty appointment was at Langston University in Oklahoma (1958-1963), where he chaired the music department. His summer of 1964 was at the Aspen School of Music where he studied with Darius Milhaud, following this with an appointment at Tennessee State University (1963-1969). In 1969, he was engaged as composer-in-residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to 1971, and remained in Atlanta one additional year as Danforth Visiting Professor at Morehouse College. In 1972, he joined the faculty of Tufts University, where he became the music department chairman in 1980 and holder of the Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Chair from 1978. He was guest conductor of the Boston Pops in 1976, 1977 and 2007, of Oklahoma Arts Institute Orchestra at Quartz OK (1984), and the original conductor of the Black Music Repertory Ensemble (1988). He retired in 1990 and moved to Chapel Hill NC. He has later been Hill Distinguished Professor at the University of Minnesota (1990), Distinguished Visiting Professor at California State University-Chico (1991), Composer-in-Residence at Northwestern University (1992, 1997), Visiting King/Chavez/Parks Professor at the University of Michigan (1993), Composer-in-Residence at Ohio State University (1994), Composer-in-Residence, Berklee School of Music, 2007, and as a Fellow of the National Humanities Center (1996-1997).

He has held fellowships and grants from the MacDowell Colony (summers of 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1968, and Norlin/MacDowell Fellow in 1983). the Copley Foundation and the Fromm Foundation (both in 1964, with Fromm Foundation Award in 1971), the Rockefeller Foundation (1968), the Yaddo Foundation (1970, 1971, 1974, 1977), the Rockefeller Center Foundation Grant (1969, 1971, 1972) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1976). In 1977 he was named an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was given the Distinguished Achievement Award from the National Association of Negro Musicians at their 60^th annual convention in St. Louis in 1979. In commemoration of his 50^th birthday, special concerts were held in Cambridge MA at the Longy School of Music (1979) and in Chicago at the studio of sculptor Richard Hunt (1978). Videmus, under the guidance of its founder, Vivian Taylor, presented a 60^th Birthday concert, conducted by Olly Wilson, at Harvard University in 1989. The One-Hundredth Year Celebration Concert at Tufts University honored him in 1995. The National Black Music Caucus of the Music Educators National Convention provided him with the Leadership Award in 1980 at their Miami meeting. Other awards and honors include being named an Alumni Fellow of Pennsylvania State University (1982), Senior Faculty Citation for Outstanding service, from Tufts University (1983), Scholar-in-Residence at Bellagio 1984, 1994), Lillian Leibner Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising from Tufts University (1985), a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (1988-1989). The IBM-Michael Stillman Fellowship in Music, from the Dierassi Foundation (1988), Artistic Residency at the Escola da Música, Universidade da Bahia, a Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (Sweet Briar VA, 1989), the Achievement Award at Atlanta’s First All-Black Symphony and Chorus (1990), Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Arts and Architecture of Pennsylvania State University (1990), Sterling Patron of Phi Mu Epsilon (1990), and the Mary Hudson Onley Award from Boston’s Hall of Black Achievement (1991). A concert of his music was offered at the 25^th Anniversary Conference of the National Black Music Caucus, now the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music (NASPAAM) of which he was the first president, in Atlanta in 1997.

He holds honorary doctorates from the College of Holy Cross (D.M.A., 1983), West Virginia State College (D.M., 1984), Bridgewater State College (D.M., 1991), St. Augustine’s College (D.M., 1996), and Northwestern University (D.F.A., 2002), Bates College (D.M., 2005) and Tufts University (D.M., 2007). He is married to Lois Anderson, librarian and genealogist.

Selected Recordings:

Intermezzi (6:50); A City Called Heaven; Thamyris; Tania Leon, conductor; Aca Digital (2003)

Cabaret Songs (7) (24:33); It Won't Be The Same River; Mallarme Chamber Players; Capstone (2001)

Chamber Concerto “Remembrances” (17:04); New American Scene II; Cleveland Chamber Symphony; Edwin London, conductor; Albany Records (1999)

Intermezzi (7:53); Works By T.J. Anderson, David Baker, Donal Fox, Olly Wilson; Vivian Taylor, piano; Eric Thomas, clarinet; J. Michael Leonard, tenor recorder; Videmus (1994)

 

T.J.+Anderson" rel="tag">T.J. Anderson
African+American" rel="tag">African American
Black+Composer" rel="tag">Black Composer
classical+music" rel="tag">Classical music
Music+Professor" rel="tag">Music Professor
Black+Conductor" rel="tag">Black Conductor

THE MUSIC OF T.J. ANDERSON: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH T.J. ANDERSON:

August 17, 1928 TJ Anderson "Variations on a ...

T.J. Anderson: Any man or woman in a bath tub

"Minstrel Man" by TJ Anderson

TJ Anderson: Variations on a Theme by MB Tolson