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In 1965, the New York Philharmonic performed Perry\u2019s \u201cStudy for Orchestra,\u201d a revision of \u201cA Short Piece for Orchestra\u201d <\/em>(1952), and the ensemble\u2019s first instance of programming a work by a Black woman. That moment, though, came at the onset of a long and tragic professional decline.<\/p>\nThe musicologist Mildred Denby Green has written that around this time, Perry was severely restricted by illness. The composer\u2019s correspondence with the Philharmonic also reveals extreme financial distress: A collect telegram she sent from her home in Akron, Ohio, on May 29, 1965, said, \u201cUnemployed at this time I am without the barest essentials.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Perry died, she had no children and only a few published works. Although scholars have identified about 100 of her manuscripts and scores, dozens cannot be performed or recorded because there is no established copyright holder. As Christopher Wilkins, the music director of the Akron Symphony, said, \u201call the work is protected; it just hasn\u2019t been licensed, and can\u2019t be until whoever controls it negotiates that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilkins first found Perry\u2019s compositions in 2020, and marveled at what he saw. She, he said, \u201cmay be the most accomplished and celebrated composer ever to emerge from Akron.\u201d He then asked the soprano and scholar Louise Toppin, who leads the African Diaspora Music Project, to help him explore Perry\u2019s output and edit some of her manuscripts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That partnership led Wilkins to conduct eight of Perry\u2019s orchestral works in concerts and private readings, including a performance and recording last year of \u201cFrammenti dalle Lettere di Santa Caterina\u201d (1953) with Toppin as the soloist. The Akron Symphony has also engaged a local lawyer to help resolve the copyright ambiguities that ensnare many of Perry\u2019s compositions \u2014 a barrier to overcome for those interested in her music, beyond historical practices of exclusion among American institutions.<\/p>\n
But this week\u2019s Philharmonic program joins high-profile presentations of Perry\u2019s works, such as the Minnesota Orchestra\u2019s performance earlier this month of \u201cA Short Piece for Orchestra,\u201d that are bringing necessary attention to her legacy at a critical time. Toppin said that if Perry is performed by leading ensembles, \u201cthat\u2019s going to help influence the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 100th anniversary of Perry\u2019s birth is coming on March 25, 2024. That month, the Bright Shiny Things label will release a world premiere recording of her Violin Concerto, featuring Curtis Stewart as the soloist, under the baton of James Blachly with the Experiential Orchestra.<\/p>\n
In the Violin Concerto, Blachly said, \u201cthe extent of the imagination that goes into what she can draw out of a very small set of musical materials is miraculous.\u201d In an email, Stewart described it as testing \u201cthe bounds of the musical\/emotional content in all its permutations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perry finished the concerto in 1968, but it lacked a performance-ready edition until recently. The composer Roger Zahab spent 45 years reconstructing the score from various copies and sets of revisions, beginning with a piano reduction he received in 1977. \u201cIt was very difficult to walk away from the piece for any length of time,\u201d he recalled. \u201cPerry was obsessively meticulous in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n