Fredara Mareva Hadley, Ph.D. is an ethnomusicology professor in the Music History Department at The Juilliard School where she teaches courses on African American Music and the field of ethnomusicology.

Fredara has presented at conferences both domestically and abroad. Her work has been featured in the press including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Billboard Magazine, and in academic publications such as American Music and Black Music in Theory. Her commentary is included in documentaries including the PBS docuseries, Gospel, The Black Church, Little Richard: I am Everything, and the Emmy-award-winning docuseries The 1619 Project.

Fredara’s forthcoming book, I’ll Make Me a World, centers on the musical culture of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and its impact on Black music and beyond. She also co-edited the Summer 2005 Special Issue of the Journal of African American History with the theme: “Reassessing the Long History of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.”

Fredara is a proud alumna of two Historically Black Colleges: Florida A&M University and Clark-Atlanta University. She completed her Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at Indiana University and joined the Juilliard faculty in 2018.

“Claiming Our Space: Citing and Celebrating the Presence of HBCUs at The Juilliard School”

Abstract:

The history of American classical music often omits or footnotes the contributions of Historically Black College and University (HBCU) music faculty and students. When conservatories or non-Black classical mention an artist’s affiliation with an HBCU it is often in passing and that relationship left unexplored. The emphasis is then placed on the conservatory from which the artist graduated. This undervaluing of HBCU music education is ahistorical in that it ignores the pedagogical lineages, the repertoire, and the theorization taught and practiced at HBCUs and how those elements directly inform American classical music writ large.

This presentation explores what it means to intentionally cite and center HBCU music education in courses and curation at The Juilliard School. The flow between Historically Black Colleges and Universities dates to the 19th Century. Many early Black conservatory graduates shaped music programs and ensembles at HBCUs. Conversely, HBCU graduates have contributed mightily to American conservatories. This paper revisits a groundbreaking concert staged at The Juilliard School on May 10, 1934, entitled “The Negro in Music” that was organized and performed by mostly HBCU alumni who were Juilliard graduate students, and the re-staging of that concert entitled, “Claiming Our Space: A Celebration of Black Music at Juilliard” ninety years later on February 28, 2024. This pair of performances is a case study as to how conservatories should center the contributions of HBCU students and faculty in their institutional history and how HBCUs are citing these contributions creates a more comprehensive narrative of American classical music.

Craig L. Robertson is the Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Virginia State University (Petersburg, VA) where he conducts the VSU Concert Choir and oversees the vocal area. He previously taught at Mary Baldwin University (Staunton, Virginia) leads the MBU University Choir and Baldwin Singers (auditioned-ensemble). He also organized the music education program, taught conducting, choral literature, courses in elementary and secondary choral methods and supervised student teachers in music. While at Mary Baldwin University, he continued to design courses around various topics such as Music in Atlanta-Based Hip Hop, Music of the Harlem Renaissance, Black Sacred Music along with serving on multiple committees such as the Admissions Committee (chair), Kaleidoscope Committee (ad hoc) and the MBU Appellate Board. He was also the conductor of the Staunton Choral Society.

In 2021, Dr. Robertson designed and served as the Artistic Director of the Inaugural MBU Holiday Festival; organized a multi-state MBU Spring Recruitment Tour and developed the first-ever MBU High School Choral Festival. He has been an invited guest conductor, clinician and lecturer for events and conferences in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Virginia, West Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin and California. His research areas include:

• “Reconciling Practice, History, and Integrity in the Performance of the Negro Spiritual and Gospel Music” – (dissertation research and lecture project)
• “Teaching in Urban Schools”
  “Life and Choral Works of Undine Smith-Moore: Dean of African-American Female Composers”
• “Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in the Choral Classroom”

As the former Director of Choral Activities at Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone, Georgia, the SCHS Choirs consistently received ‘Superior’ ratings at their annual performance evaluation and has led the chorus in performances at Spivey Hall (Morrow, Georgia), Carnegie Hall (New York), Jefferson Memorial (Washington, DC), Clayton State University (Morrow, Georgia), Walt Disney World (Orlando, Florida) and many other venues throughout the Metro-Atlanta area. Mr. Robertson’s students regularly perform with the Georgia Music Educators Association’s District Honor Chorus, All-State Chorus, All-State Sight-Reading Chorus and the Spivey Hall Workshop Choir. He also conducted the Award-winning SCHS Gospel Choir and served as the school’s coach for the Georgia High School Athletic Association’s Literary Team where his Male Quartet were named Regional Champions.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Robertson was the choral music director at Dutchtown Middle School in Hampton, Georgia (2008-2012) where he conducted the DMS Sixth Grade Chorus, Mixed Chorus and the Advanced Treble Choir. All of his ensembles consistently received ‘Superior’ ratings at their annual performance evaluations. The DMS Choruses has presented performances at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion, Georgia Aquarium, Lincoln Memorial and at the 2011 Georgia Music Educator Association’s Annual In-Service Conference (Savannah, GA). In 2009 the DMS Choruses were awarded ‘Superior’ ratings and won ‘Best Choir Overall’ at the Music in the Parks Competition (Orlando, FL). The judges at the OrlandoFest Music Festival awarded them 2nd and 3rd place rankings in 2012. The DMS Sixth Grade Chorus has also consistently received ‘Superior’ ratings at the CaroWinds Music Festival (Charlotte, NC). Additionally, students under Dr. Robertson’s instruction participate in District Honor Chorus, GMEA All-State Chorus, Spivey Hall Workshop, Sixth Grade Statewide Honor Chorus and Solo & Ensemble Evaluation. He has also taught choral music at Forest Park Middle School (Forest Park, GA), Reading Edge Academy (DeBary, FL) and Bonner Elementary (Daytona Beach, FL).

Dr. Robertson received a Doctorate of Music Arts in Choral Conducting and Literature from the University of Colorado (Boulder) after studying conducting with Dr. Gregory Gentry, Dr. Andrea Ramsey and Dr. Gary Lewis. He conducted the University Choir, CU Festival Singers, CU Summer Lab Choir and held a three-year appointment as the primary conductor of the CU Men’s Chorus. He also served as the Director of Music for Children and Youth Choirs at the historic Montview Presbyterian Church (Denver, CO) where he conducted the children and youth choirs, taught youth hand bells and assisted with the Westminster Choir.

Studying voice with the late Dr. Aldrich W. Adkins and the late Martin Strother, Dr. Robertson received conducting and music education instruction from Johnnella L. Edmonds before matriculating from Virginia State University (Petersburg, Virginia) with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Choral Music Education. While obtaining a Master of Music Education from Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Freer, he participated in the Atlanta Summer Conducting Institute led by Dr. Deanna Joseph (Georgia State University) and Dr. Dan Bara (University of Georgia). He has been a soloist with the VSU Concert Choir, Opera Workshop, Madrigal Ensemble, Intercollegiate Music Association Choir, African-American Heritage Chorale (Dr. Odell Hobbs, director) and the award-winning VSU Gospel Chorale. Additionally, he studied voice with Dr. Curtis Rayam and performed with the Bethune- Cookman College Opera Workshop (Daytona Beach, Florida) and as a soloist with the Daytona Beach Community College Concert Choir. In 1996, Dr. Robertson was awarded the title of ‘Best Male Vocalist of the Year’ at the National Collegiate Gospel Choir competition in New York City and continues to perform with some of gospel music’s greatest artists.

Dr. Robertson is a member of National Association of Music Educators, Virginia Music Educators Association, American Choral Directors Association, Virginia-American Choral Directors Association (Southwestern Regional Coordinator), and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Neville Distinguished Professor Candace Bailey has been at NCCU since 1998. She works on women’s music in 19^th-century cultures; race and social networks, music in Regency Britain, and Edmond Dédé’s Morgiane (including a book for Cambridge University Press). Her work this year has been supported by an ACLS-HBCU Fellowship.

“Whose Music History? The Music History Curriculum at an HBCU”

Abstract:

Judging from the tables of contents in every major music history textbook, the knowledge that undergraduate students should take from their degrees (the information that graduate school faculty will expect them to know) remains relatively consistent. A few of the names or pieces change, but Verdi and Wagner are the opera composers, Haydn and Mozart represent Classical style, Mendelssohn most likely is the composer of sacred music in the Romantic period, Schubert’s lieder constitute the song repertory. During my first decade at the HBCU where I have taught since 1997, I worked to prepare my students for life beyond their undergraduate degrees by adhering to these expectations. However, from the beginning, I was made aware of a teleological paradox: the music my students learned in their applied lessons rarely intersected with the composers we studied in music history. I accompanied many of them, and it was here that I learned about Florence Price, Hall Johnson, many other Black composers.

Eventually, I redesigned each of the courses in the music history sequence to present the main styles, genres, and issues from a Black perspective. I began with the introductory class on American music history, and, over time, I reworked the more traditional chronological journey through Western (mostly) music history. All of the authors that the students read are Black scholars and all of the performers I use for listening examples are Black. This presentation will demonstrate the ways I have manipulated the curriculum, the outcomes resulting from the revised courses, and the challenges in teaching without a textbook or anthology. I discuss the philosophical dilemma I face: if I move white European composers to the side, am I doing my students a disservice when they compete for graduate school funding or other opportunities? My thoughts on resolving this conclude this presentation.

“The history of Scott Joplin’s Opera Treemonisha, and its revitalization due to efforts by the HBCUs”

Abstract:

Scott Joplin is known for his ragtime piano music, but he has a varied catalog of music that is being brought to light in large part due to efforts by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. One of the most influential of these works is Joplin’s grand opera Treemonisha.

Scott Joplin wrote his second opera, Treemonisha, over the course of fifteen years, yet it never quite saw the recognition he desired during his lifetime. Treemonisha is truly a special work – it is the only opera written about the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era written by a Black person who experienced it firsthand. Nationalist movements at the turn of the 20th century led to the creation of a “school of American opera.” Joplin’s Treemonisha was, and continues to be, an important part of American musical history and culture.

For this presentation, I will be collaborating with Patrick Dailey, who is a graduate of Morgan State and who currently works with Opera America on opera efforts for HBCUs. He was involved with a performance of Treemonisha at Morgan State. I will also be drawing on research I conducted as an ethnomusicology major at UCLA. The presentation will be collaborative, and will consist of a short presentation, a discussion/interview with Mr. Dailey on musical traditions and opera in the HBCUs, and performances of a few selections from the Opera.

We will be exploring this work by looking at its historical and cultural contexts, discussing the work itself and its reception during Joplin’s lifetime, and also learning about the various productions that continue to occur in large part due to sustained effort by the HBCUs.

A few concepts I would like to discuss include:

– The concept of “high art” vs “low art” and discussing underlying prejudicial connotations

– Opera as a medium for discussing and commenting on cultural and historical practices

– How a trend towards Historically Informed Performance practices has changed the way Joplin’s opera is produced

Michelle Z. Gibson is a PhD candidate in Music Education at the University of Florida. A devoted pedagogue with experience teaching in a variety of educational settings, Ms. Gibson has garnered national and international recognition for her scholarship concerning African American Spiritual Pedagogy and Culturally Responsive Music Teacher Education.

“Becoming American: The Choral Music Pedagogical Implications of Place and Identity Formation in African American Spirituals”

Abstract:

The purpose of this text analysis of the folk and concert spirituals “Wade in the Water” and “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” was to investigate the manner in which enslaved African Americans negotiated a sense of place and identity through their musical interactions and the potential implications for choral music pedagogy. Utilizing Melvin Dixon’s (1987) conception of wilderness in African American literature and Thomas Turino’s (2003) theory of cultural nation building as theoretical lenses, I determined that the dialect, religious imagery, and rhetorical
devices utilized in spirituals depict the formation of a new empowering African American identity that both reflected and transcended the social circumstances of the enslaved in the American South. The text found in African American Spirituals reveal a struggle for the enslaved to define themselves in a new country under demoralizing circumstances (Barber & Thomas, 2021; Allen et al., 1995). In turn, further investigation into the meaning making embodied in the text and depictions of place in the genre can inform future training and instructional practices for choral music educators when teaching and performing spirituals in formal settings. Through the tenets of culturally responsive teaching (Gay, 2018; Ladson-Billings, 1995b; Lind & McKoy, 2023), music educators can promote validating musical experiences of difference and triumph with spirituals to an increasingly diverse student population. Nevertheless, choral music educators must operate from a cultural insider perspective to effectively utilize the representations of identity formation found within the text to establish cultural competency in their teaching. The current reliance on music of the Western Classical Art tradition by music teacher training programs (Lind & McKoy, 2023), however, raises concerns about the readiness of choral music educators to teach spirituals in a way that honors the genre’s sociocultural grounding.

“Rehearsal Processes to Non-European Choral Music and Cross Cultural Understandings: African American Spirituals”

Abstract:

The rise of multiculturalism in the United States has increased the need to diversify public school education, especially choral repertoire. African American spirituals are an excellent choice for representative repertoire, presenting choral educators the opportunity to develop well-rounded musicians and teach fundamental historical lessons simultaneously. Despite spirituals serving as a great starting place to expand cultural understandings, concerns of ownership foster problems
when multicultural choirs program this music. Fear of cultural appropriation remains strong, preventing directors from programming spirituals, which can lead to their possible erasure in racially diverse choirs.

This paper aims to destigmatize the performance of African American spirituals by non-Black choral ensembles, providing choir directors a necessary perspective when branching out of the Western choral canon. With culturally responsive pedagogy, a child-centered approach to teaching, students can learn more about themselves and others in a heterogeneous society (Shaw 2012). Culturally responsive pedagogy encourages teachers to expand their programs starting with the music of their students’ cultural heritage. Through the Facets Model, choral educators provide students several perspectives to learning different choral musics (Yoo 2017). In multicultural ensembles, some students may be experiencing spirituals for the first time. It is the director’s responsibility to mentor students through the music they experience in the classroom. This project reviews existing controversy involving the performance of spirituals by multicultural choirs, arguments for the tradition to be learned by all American public school students, and teaching methodologies that can be applied to this genre in the context of a multicultural choir.

Odell Zeigler, IV, is the Director of Choirs at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, VA, leading multiple choirs and teaching Music Appreciation and AP Music Theory. An adjudicator, clinician, and published writer, he is active in choral music education and contributes to various professional organizations.

“Empowering Choral Directors: Strategies for Success in Urban Choral Programs”

Abstract:

This presentation highlights specific challenges and opportunities for new choral directors navigating urban choral programs, with a focus on pedagogical practices that foster success in these settings. While these challenges are not exclusive to urban choral programs, they are often amplified in these contexts. My session will share actionable strategies that empower choral leaders to navigate these complexities effectively.

The presentation will address key issues such as navigating resource limitations, fostering community engagement, and supporting diverse learner needs. Drawing on my experiences as a choral director and clinician working in diverse urban settings, I will provide practical insights and solutions that resonate with the realities of teaching in urban choral programs.

This session emphasizes the pedagogy of Black music within urban education settings and its intersection with HBCU music traditions. By exploring these themes, I aim to equip attendees with tools to address the unique needs of their programs while fostering musical excellence and inclusivity.

The presentation is designed as a 45–60-minute PowerPoint-based session that bridges theoretical insights with real-world applications. The content is flexible and can be adapted to fit the time allotted for presenters. My work aligns with the conference’s focus on Black music education, HBCU legacies, and teaching Black music at the K-12 level.

I look forward to the opportunity to share this presentation and contribute to the vital discussions at the HBCU Music Conference.

Dr. Abimbola Cole Kai-Lewis is an ethnomusicologist and professor at Berklee College of Music, Hofstra University, Temple University, and York College – City University of New York. She is a proud graduate of Spelman College and UCLA. Her research explores genres of African and African American popular music and K-12 education.

“The Sonic Ring Shout: Pursuing a Pedagogy of Healing through Music Programming at The Apollo”

Abstract:

The Apollo curated musical programming promoting communal healing following the COVID-19 pandemic and protests occurring during the 2020 racial reckoning. Centered around the ring shout, the programs were intended to relieve the trauma of widespread death, disease, isolation, and violence. These 2022 Apollo events included “Resistance and Healing: Engaging the Ring Shout” and “The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout.” “Resistance and Healing” was a community event celebrating the evolution of the ring shout. It featured a film by Charmaine Minniefield, trauma discussion with Kim Graham, and a ring shout performance with the Jamal Gaines Creative Outlet Dance Theater.

“The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout” included an Apollo school day performance and corresponding educational resource guide to support teachers with content instruction. The guide offered background information about the New York premieres of Courtney Bryan’s “Sanctum” and Joel Thompson’s “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed.” It also provided tips about performance preparation, details about the power of art during times of historical reckoning, an overview of Black classical musicians, and the history of the ring shout.

This presentation investigates using “Resistance and Healing” and “The Gathering” in classroom instruction as part of a “pedagogy of healing” (Lythcott 2024). According to Sade Lythcott, this form of pedagogy involves launching hard conversations, seeking cultural joy, and gathering together to heal. I will use the premise of the pedagogy of healing to explore my experiences teaching middle school students musical content based on “The Gathering” resource guide and participant-observation at “Resistance and Healing.” These experiences are complemented by a four-year classroom partnership with The Apollo and serving as a member of its School Programs Advisory Committee. By these means, this presentation illustrates how musical content from “Resistance and Healing” and “The Gathering” contributed to classroom instruction rooted in a pedagogy of healing.

Cheryl L. Keyes is the author of Rap Music and Street Consciousness (University of Illinois Press), which received a CHOICE award for outstanding academic book titles. She has written numerous journal articles, essays, and reviews on hip-hop/rap and African American music and served on the Executive Committee for the Smithsonian Folkways Recording and the National Museum of African American History and Culture’s nine CD box set project, Smithsonian Anthology of Hip-Hop and Rap. Keyes’s scholarship has advanced into other areas including producing, writing, and directing a documentary (short) called Beyond Central Avenue: Contemporary Female Jazz Instrumentalists of Los Angeles. She has served as musical director for the “Lady Jazz: Blues in the Summertime” concert, commissioned by Instrumental Women ProjectTM for its Lady Jazz summer concert series held at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre and created and produced the concerts Swinging to a World of Strings, supported by the David and Irmgard Dobrow Fund, and Prelude to Juneteenth Day Celebration: A Multimedia Event, held at the iconic Royce Hall, becoming UCLA’s inaugural Juneteenth Day celebration event.

In the area of performance, Professor Keyes is a pianist, flutist, singer, and composer with a list of credits. Most noted are performances with the All-Girl All-Star Invitational Band under the direction of the legendary jazz flugelhornist Clark Terry, and she has recorded with jazz clarinetist-educator Alvin Batiste in which Keyes performs keyboards on Batiste’s debut album, Musique D’Afrique Nouvelle Orleans. She is a recipient of numerous awards: NAACP Image Award in the category of “Outstanding World Music Album” for her debut CD, Let Me
Take You There (Keycan Records); Global Music Award Silver Medal for “Outstanding Achievement” for her double-single CD Hollywood and Vine (Keycan Records) and most recently for her orchestral work “Sundiata Keita Overture,” which premiered at the Prelude to Juneteenth Day Celebration: A Multimedia Event in which she created and produced at UCLA Royce Hall and UCLA’s first Juneteenth Day celebration. Keyes received Indiana University’s Herman C. Hudson Alumni Award and conferred an Honorary Membership in the Society for Ethnomusicology, recognized for her “decades of path-breaking scholarship on music, the African American community as well as for her longstanding service to the Society.” Keyes has served in administrative capacities including President of the US Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM-US), Inaugural Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, just to name a few. She is currently the Chair of the UCLA Department of African American Studies.

Scott Douglass is a bassist and teacher from Virginia. He is collaborating with the Richmond Jazz Society to collect oral histories of jazz educators. He is the author of “The Influence of D. Antoinette Handy” and “Lionel Hampton and the Black Press.” He teaches at Columbia University. Learn more: scottgraydouglass.substack.com.

“The Jazz Education Legacy of Virginia State College Music Professor Undine Smith Moore”

Abstract:

Zoe Coker is a first-year doctoral student in Ethnomusicology at the University of California at Los Angeles. She is also a 2024 graduate of Howard University. Her time at UCLA thus far has primarily involved the exploration of African American musical traditions, specifically in the realm of jazz.

“Spring Can Really Hang Us Up the Most: Temporality, Tonality, and Trance in Defining a New Standard Amongst Black Female Jazz Vocalists”

Abstract:

“Spring Can Really Hang Us Up the Most: Temporality, Tonality, and Trance in Defining a New Standard Amongst Black Female Jazz Vocalists” is an essay that analyzes how female black jazz vocalists imagine and negotiate vernal motifs in their own recordings of popular jazz standards. Although there is no sanctioned list that entails specific songs which are deemed standard, nor a list that would then explicitly define its parameters, black female vocalists and instrumentalists alike have sonically engaged in a discourse of sorts on various improvisatory or stylistic interpretations through their recordings of these popular songs. Interested in how and why black female jazz vocalists employ musical narratives, I examine how the exploration of their various interpretative choices in their individual covers may expand upon an idea of a distinct and deliberate re-imagined Standard of their own. The beginning of this essay intends to connote what the re-imagined Standard may convey along with its potential cultural significance. The second half of the essay explains how manipulations of sound quality and mechanics of delivery (time, text, and pitch) analyzed in vernal-specific recordings allude to an emotionally resonant cultural and narrative expression.[1] Lastly, this paper addresses a symbiotic poetical interplay (the “discourse” previously mentioned) between both the various interpreters as well as their audiences, essentially their expressive conventions and responses amongst each other as women. Ultimately, this paper attempts to locate the governing principles in African American musical performance and listening through a gender-specific lens.

[1] Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia K. Maultsby, eds., African American Music: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2015). Sound quality and mechanics of delivery are defined by Mellonne Burnim as a two-part methodology from her three governing aesthetic principles of performance, which include sound quality, mechanics of delivery, and style of delivery.

Samantha Reavis’s areas of interest include South Asian devotional musics, music and political violence, and music of diasporic communities.  In addition to her own research, Samantha has served as a research assistant at Apsara Media under the mentorship of Professor Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy, helping to digitize the Bake/Jairazbhoy Archive of South Asian Traditional Music and Art.

“Between Art Song and Activism: The Black Feminist Legacy of Bonds and Hughes”

Abstract:

In this research, I examine the music of composer Margaret Allison Bonds and her collaborations with poet and social activist Langston Hughes. Drawing on Black feminist thought, I assert that the collaborations of Margaret Allison Bonds and Langston Hughes exemplify the importance of artistic collaboration between Black men and Black women in struggles for racial liberation and the significance of the experience of Black women in artistic expressions of Black vernacular culture. I also expand on previous literature’s analysis of the unique role Black women played in fostering artistic relationships and connection during the respective Black Renessainces of Harlem and Chicago. My analysis draws on a meta-synthesis of literature on both Margaret Allison Bonds and Langston Hughes’ artistic outputs, as well as works with archival materials such as correspondences between Bonds and Hughes, original musical scores, and program notes. I also consider musical quotes, form, rhythm, melody and harmony. In this study, I especially consider Bond’s use of Langston Hughes’ poems “Minstrel Man”, “Dream Variation” and “I, Too” in her song cycle Three Dream Portraits. I argue that Bond’s longstanding musical relationship with Hughes represents an artistic anti-racist, Black feminist mutual aid network and creative safe space. Lastly, I contend that Bonds and Hughes work together creates a nuanced image of the Black experience, and, by merging the European art song with the Pan-Africanism of Harlem Renaissance literature, the pair uniquely reconcile their African American heritage and identity with their artistic affinities for European classicism and tradition. This project addresses a gap in musicological work in regards to Black feminist theory and the collaborations between Black men and Black women in twentieth-century classical music. Lastly, I suggest further research on these unique artistic collaborations between Black women and men during the Black Renessainces of the 1920s and 1930s, and how this has shaped continued expressions of Black vernacular tradition.