George Lewis will discuss his 2023 monodrama Song of the Shank: A Tale of Three Toms, a collaboration with artist and director Stan Douglas and novelist Jeffery Renard Allen. The subject of the work is the sightless composer and virtuoso pianist Thomas Wiggins, born under slavery in 1849, who became popularly known as “Blind Tom,” and performed at the White House at the age of ten. Wiggins was internationally celebrated, one of the most famous American composer-pianists of his time. He was probably the first Black American composer to achieve that status, at a time when American art music was in its infancy. The goal of this talk is to provide a sense of the network of signs, symbols, and histories that go into a work of this scale and complexity.
Professor Lewis also will present a composition masterclass on Monday, April 15, at 1 pm in the Husa Gallery in the Whalen Center for Music.
