Vol. 10, No. 4

The Quarter NoteSphinx Chamber Orchestra Tour Grows, Returns to Carnegie Hall

to Honor Roberta Flack

In 2004, the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra played its first concert at Carnegie Hall, and has since returned four times earning rave reviews from The New York Times. Last fall, the Orchestra embarked on its inaugural national tour, which included eight performances from Chicago to Boston. This year, the Orchestra’s tour has grown to 13 performances, including another return to Carnegie Hall.

Joining the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra on tour is the Harlem Quartet, a group that is quickly gaining recognition for their musically-refined and engaging performances.

The tour began on September 13 at Bowling Green State University and includes performances on the east coast, as well as in the south and Midwest, concluding with two performances in California in late October. The full schedule is available on page 3.

On October 7, the Sphinx Chamber Orchestra and Harlem Quartet return to Carnegie Hall. “In the past

five years, Sphinx has given dozens of young musicians the opportunity to perform on one of the world’s great stages, and we have shared their talent with thousands of young people from the New York area,” said Sphinx Founder and President Aaron P. Dworkin of the Sphinx Artist Series at Carnegie Hall.

Chaired by Sheila C. Johnson, a founding partner of Black Entertainment Television (BET), this special concert will

Fall 2009q

The Sphinx Chamber Orchestra. Photo: Nan Melville

Ms. Roberta Flack to receive SphinxLifetime Achievement Award

Continued page 3

The Sphinx Laureates at Carnegie Hall

OCTOBER 7 2009 6:00 p.m. Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

Tickets $20CarnegieCharge (212) 247-7800www.carnegiehall.org

Discount for groups of 10 or more call (212) 903-9705

SAVE THE DATE!October 5, 2010The Sphinx Laureates return to Carnegie Hall

FeaturingSphinx Chamber OrchestraHarlem QuartetElena UriosteMaestro Damon Gupton

Help Keep the Music PlayingJoin us at Carnegie Hall in VIP box seats and meet the artists over cocktails, light fare, and desserts following the performance.

As a VIP Sponsor, you will receive box seat tickets to the concert and admission to the afterglow, as well as recognition of your support in the concert program.

Angel Sponsor - $10,000All sponsor benefits, plus:

VIP Seating and afterglow admission for eight• A principal chair in the orchestra named for you or • your organization30 general admission tickets for the charity of your • choice

Pharaoh Club - $5,000All sponsor benefits, plus:

VIP Seating and afterglow admission for four• A section chair in the orchestra named for you or • your organization20 general admission tickets for the charity of your • choice

Pyramid Patron - $2,500VIP Seating and afterglow admission for two•

Giza Plateau - $1,500VIP Seating and afterglow admission for one•

Contact Marshay R. Williams for VIP information646-429-1987 x713 or marshay@sphinxmusic.org

PRESIDENT’S NoTEEditor: Stephan BobalikContributors: Stephan Bobalik, Aaron DworkinDesign & Layout: Julie Renfro

Founder/PresidentAaron P. DworkinBoard of DirectorsRuben Acosta, ChairJenice Mitchell Ford, Vice-ChairAnthony Glover, TreasurerKurtis T. Wilder, SecretaryDeidre Bounds Martha Darling Aaron P. Dworkin Kenneth C. Fischer Howard Hertz Al McDonough Daedra McGhee David Rudolph Beverly Willis

Board of AdvisorsSanford Allen David Cerone Ronald A. Crutcher Dominique de Lerma Matthew Derr Roberto Diaz Anthony Elliott Guillermo FigueroaSandra Gibson Kelly Hall-Tompkins Juanita Jackson Polly Kahn Christopher Kendall Margaret M. Lioi Christian Matjias Lolita Mayadas Charlene J. Mitchell Lester Monts Anne Parsons Willis Patterson Juan Ramirez Sebastian Ruth Stephen Shipps George Taylor George Trudeau Albert Webster

Honorary CommitteeBranford Marsalis, Chair Nikki Giovanni Ida Kavafian Ani Kavafian Nigel Kennedy Jaime Laredo Tania Leon Yo-Yo E. Ma Mark O’Connor Christopher O’Riley Itzhak Perlman André Previn Awadagin PrattLeonard Slatkin Nadja Solerno-Sonnenberg Michael Tilson Thomas George Walker

© 2009 Sphinx Organization400 Renaissance Center, Ste 2550Detroit, MI 48243 313-877-9100www.sphinxmusic.org info@sphinxmusic.org

Lula C. Wilson Trust

Bingham Trust

Leo Guthman Fund

Aaron Copland Fund

Claire Giannini Fund

Mr. David Rockefeller

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Scherman Foundation

Dorothy Richard StarlingFoundation

The Loraine & Melinese ReuterFoundation

The Kresge Foundation

Max & Victoria DreyfusFoundation

C.S. Mott Foundation

Sphinx Presenter

Greetings during the busy fall season!

As you can see from this issue, there is a lot going on here at Sphinx. We are especially excited about our upcoming Carnegie Hall event chaired by Sheila C. Johnson, where we will celebrate the incredible achievements of the legendary Roberta Flack!

I want to take a brief moment to thank all of you for your support and commitment to the mission of Sphinx. In partnership with the Cultural Alliance of Southeast Michigan, the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan launched an incredible challenge program this summer, which made every gift worth 50 percent more. I want to share our sincere appreciation on behalf of the young people whose lives we will be able

to touch with the magic of music as a result of your participation. With the Community Foundation’s match, your gifts to Sphinx totaled over $100,000!

The incredible economic challenges of the past 12 months are a serious threat to our ability to continue the criti-cal work we do. Your dedication to the communities we reach is now more important than ever. Your support enables young people to attend our Preparatory Music Institute @ Wayne State University or Sphinx Performance Academy @ Walnut Hill School on full scholarship. Your generosity allows young students in Detroit, Flint, and other communities to pick up a violin and experience the feeling of making music for the first time. You make it possible for our emerging young professional musicians to grace the stage of Carnegie Hall and the winners of the Sphinx Competition to inspire millions with their performances! Thank you!

I hope to see you on October 7 at Carnegie Hall.

Aaron Dworkin

Gradoux-MattRare Violins

Margaret A. CargillFoundation

Black United Fund of Michigan

Sphinx Prep StudentAttends Usher’s CampOn July 13, eighteen Metro Detroit students joined their peers from around the country on the campus of Emory University for Camp New Look. Among the participants was Perry James, a 14-year old percussionist and Sphinx Prep student. The program is sponsored by R & B musician Usher Raymond IV and his New Look Foundation, which was established to empower youth from underserved communities by giving them the skills necessary to enter careers in the sports and entertainment industry, with the intent of increasing their economic status and decreasing at-risk behavior.Perry most enjoyed the opportunity he had to meet other young people from different states. “I really liked that it was kids from all over the country,” he said. “We got to relate to each other and discover our differences and similarities.” Now in its fifth year, the program’s theme was “Issue, Action. . .Power!” Campers were taught to identify issues and take action to address those issues; they left with the power to change the world through service. “When young people begin to help others, they help themselves,” said Usher of the theme.“It’s a good program because it teaches kids how to be successful instead of just another kid on the block doing nothing,” said Perry. Students participated in many fun and educational activities while at Camp New Look, including performing a concert and learning how to be successful in business and life. The opportunity for Metro Detroit students to participate in Camp New Look was made possible by MGM Grand Detroit.

SPHINX NEWS

Thanks to all who made a gift to Sphinx during the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan Arts & Culture Challenge. Your gifts totaled over $100,000, and put Sphinx among the most generously supported participating organizations.

Through our partnership with Gradoux-Matt Rare Violins, LLC and WMP Concert Hall, Sphinx Competition alumnae Mariana Green-Hill, Maia Cabeza, and Yemi Gonzalez performed at the WMP Concert Hall in New York in September. Mariana had the privilege of performing on a Stradivarius instrument as part of the “Strad for Lunch” series.

Welcome to our newest summer education partner, International Music Academy Pilsen, Czech Republic.

First-place laureate of the 2007 Competition, Elena Urioste, was a winner of the inaugural London Music Masters Awards. As part of the award, she will make her debut performance at Wigmore Hall in October.

Harlem Quartet violist Juan-Miguel Hernandez won first place in the viola division of the International Johannes Brahms Competition in Vienna. Congratulations!

Danielle Belen, 2008 Laureate, will perform Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons with the Winston Salem Symphony on October 17, 18, and 19.

Have news? We want to hear it! Send your updates to QuarterNote@SphinxMusic.org.

13th Annual Sphinx Competitionfor young Black & Latino String Players

presented by

February 3 - 7, 2010Applications due November 11th!

For application & guidelines visitwww.sphinxmusic.org/applicants/general.html

September 13 Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green, OH

September 15University of Akron

Akron, OH

September 17August Wilson Center

Pittsburgh, PA

September 20Oberlin University

Oberlin, OH

September 22Bridgewater College

Bridgewater, VA

September 24Porter Center for Performing Arts

Brevard, NC

September 27 North Carolina A &T State University

Greensboro, NC

September 29Eastman School of Music

Rochester, NY

2009 SCO TOUR SCHEDULEOctober 2

Rockefeller Universtiy New York, NY

October 5Old Dominion/Chandler Recital Hall

Norfolk, VA

October 7Carnegie Hall New York, NY

October 21California State University

Chico, CA

October 24Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts

Cerritos, CA For ticket information visit

www.sphinxmusic.org/programs/chamber_orchestra.htmland use the links at the bottom of the page

include the presentation of the Sphinx Lifetime Achievement Award to Roberta Flack, the renowned songstress and music education advocate.

“My love for music began when I was very young, and I have seen on the faces of young people around the world the power of music. I support the Sphinx Organization because they give so many children the opportunity to fall in love with music they way I did,” said Johnson. “I believe so strongly that music education should be a part of every child’s life, and I hope others will join me at Carnegie Hall to support this important work.”

Ms. Johnson will present the Sphinx Lifetime Achievement Award to Roberta Flack in honor of her extensive music education career as well as her artistic excellence and accomplishments. Classically trained on the piano from an early age, Ms. Flack received a music scholarship at age 15 to attend Howard University and went on to a successful career as a performer and recording artist. Ms. Flack recently opened the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx. The school provides an innovative and inspiring music education program to underprivileged students free of charge.

Can’t make it to a concert? Follow theSphinx Chamber Orchestra tour blog online:

www.SphinxMusic.org/blog/sco.php

SCO Tour, cont.

400 Renaissance CenterSuite 2550Detroit MI 48243

Something to Ponder:

A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski

CENTER STAGE Roberta Flack

Internationally hailed as one of the greatest songstresses of our time, Roberta Flack remains unparalleled in her ability to tell a story through her music. Her songs deal insight into our lives, loves, culture and politics, while effortlessly traversing a broad musical landscape from pop to soul to folk to jazz. Born in Ashevil le, North Caro l ina , and r a i s ed in Arlington, Virginia, Roberta Flack discovered her earliest musical influences f rom the church. When she turned nine, she began taking piano lessons, while listening to a wide range of popular music, R&B, jazz, blues,

and pop. At 13, she won top honors with her performance of a Scarlatti sonata in a statewide contest for black students, and by 15, she enrolled at Howard University on a full music scholarship, making her one of the youngest students to ever enroll at the institution. Ms. Flack became the first black student teacher at an all-white school near Chevy Chase, Maryland. By the time she graduated, at 19, she’d already directed a production of Aida, earning her a standing ovation! When famed musician, Les McCann, heard Ms. Flack’s voice, he instantly arranged for her to audition with Atlantic Records, which began a remarkable career with one of the world’s foremost labels. With a string of hits, including, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, “Where Is the Love” (a duet with former Howard University classmate Donny Hathaway), “Killing Me Softly With His Song”, “Feel Like Makin’ Love”, “The Closer I Get to You”, “Tonight I Celebrate My Love”, and “Set the Night to Music”, Ms. Flack has built a

musical legacy that many dream of and few attain. In 1999, She received a Star on Hollywood ‘s legendary Walk of Fame. Ms. Flack continues to play to appreciative audiences around the world, and is currently involved with two exciting studio ventures -- an album of Beatles songs and a project involving a talented group of musicians that she is developing called The Real Artists Symposium. She had the pleasure of appearing recently with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, conducted by Marvin Hamlisch. In February 2009, Ms. Flack per formed with cr i t ical ly acclaimed orchestras in Australia, inc luding the Melbourne, Q u e e n s l a n d , A d e l a i d e , Tasmanian, West Australian and Sydney Symphonies.

Very active as a humanitarian, Ms. Flack recently opened the Roberta Flack School of Music at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, which provides an innovative and inspiring music education program to underprivileged students free of charge.

Q uik QuizQ. What Nigerian composer and professor authored the theory of African pianism?

A. Akin Euba was born in Lagos, Nigeria on April 28, 1935 and spent his early years there. Currently the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Euba divides his time between composition and scholarly work and considers himself to be a disciple of Bela Bartok. Since 1970, he has pioneered several theories of composition, the best known being African pianism. This concept has been adopted by some of the most important contemporary African composers, such as J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Joshua Uzoigwe and Gyimah Labi. The concept is articulated in several of Euba’s works for the piano, including Scenes from Traditional Life (1970) which has been performed extensively in various parts of the world.

Quarter Note: How did you get started with music? What were your earliest musical influences? How have they stayed with you throughout the years?

Roberta Flack: I was sur-rounded by adults who were musicians – my mom, my father – self-taught musicians, my grandmother, uncles, aunts, relatives who sang and made music with each other. My mother was a church organist; the church that we belonged to did very, very, very important arrangements of sacred choral music and I was influenced by that.

I grew up in Arlington, Vir-ginia, which is not far from Washington, D. C., where Howard University is located. A lot of the choir directors who worked at the church that I attended, and who conducted the senior choir, had been stu-dents at HU and were gradu-ates. They brought wonderful music to the choir for which my mom played and eventually I had a chance to play. It was just a great time for me to be growing up in Arlington, and to be exposed to all this music and all these incredible adults who played and sang and gave me a chance to hear incredible classical music, classical vocal music, sacred, secular, classical instrumental music – Bach, Chopin, Schumann Brahms, Schubert…it was overwhelm-ing…Tchaikovsky, Rachmani-nov. At 9 I started to study

piano—through the goodness of my Sunday School Superin-tendant’s heart—with a teacher who had studied at Howard herself, and then I went on to study as an outside student at Howard at 14 with the great Hazel Harrison, an African-American Indian, who is in the Encyclopedia Britannica. I have a great historical back-ground in study, piano study and music study, and it is hard for me to talk about my begin-nings as a musician without talking about all of this because it just pours out of me. It was just so important.

I went on to Howard Univer-sity as a student myself at 15 years of age—with a scholar-ship. Then I taught school and everything just opened up and unfolded like that, and it was just incredible. Accompanying aspiring singers of opera at 19 or 20 years of age – sight-read-ing, transposing difficult pieces of music – quite challenging.

QN: In college, you were the first black student teacher in an all white school in MD and then taught in NC before returning to Wash, DC, how did these experiences shape the way you see the value of diver-sity in life and in music?

RF: Well, of course, the answer to that question is that I do in-deed see the value of diversity in life – I cannot imagine life being the same old thing every day all the time, you know, diversity is key and important to everything that is valuable as far as education and life itself is concerned—and the learning experience in general. In its simplest form, as well as its most complicated form, diversity has everything to do with education and how it is given to a student. For me it was very important because I thought that I knew every-thing—most young people do and I was no different. I thought that I knew every-

thing, every, every, everything, having finished Howard University at a very young age. And I could have finished even younger but I changed my major. I was majoring in piano and that is what my scholarship was in and then I wasn’t prepared for education and to teach. Consequently, I stayed over to complete some education courses, so I finished a semester later than everyone else in my class did. So it was you know…I could have been upset about that but I wasn’t, I was very anxious to get a job –and I knew that I had to stay. The Dean of the Music School said to me, “Roberta, as well as you play and as well as you think you play, and as well as the other students in your class do, in fact, play better and sing better than you, it is very hard for black people to get jobs as soloists – as classical musical soloists. So, my dear, you need some education courses, you need to be able to work, you need to work. Maybe you will get a job playing somewhere, but you need to be prepared to work so you can support your-self. You need some education courses.” So I stayed to finish some education courses, and it was a good thing that I did.I got a job in Farmville, North Carolina, which was an inter-esting experience. I was 19, almost 20, years old and I had a ninth grade class, a home-room class, and they were 18, 19—20 some of them—and they were parents, some of them, and I, of course, was not even though I was their age. They looked at me as some sort of strange creature but we communicated because young people can do that. We did a lot of Stevie Wonder, R&B music of the day, to get their attention – tried to learn the “Star Spangled Banner” start-ing with what they knew and progressed to what we wanted them to know.

There was no budget for a music teacher, so I was not

hired as a music teacher, rather I was hired to teach English and Math. It was not fun, but I taught ninth grade English and grammar and twelfth grade literature. And I had a ninth grade homeroom class. I taught music to everyone in the school and I had a choir that met Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and maybe Tuesday mornings. These were young people who had never partici-pated in a statewide regional choir competition – which was not a competition in the sense that you competed for a prize. You competed to be adjudicated on the basis of how well you performed a song that everyone else around the state could sing. No one ever failed. Our students performed some-thing that was fairly difficult, if I recall—a song from my days as a member of the choir at Howard University. It took the whole year to get them ready – but we did it. We did.

It was very difficult—difficult for them because they had never done anything like that, but they sat there and they were able to move through, come through, and pass. I was very happy about that. Several of the students I taught piano to privately, and they were able to pass their fears. A lot of the guys—big guys, already fathers—were not able to sing when I got there, but by the end of the year they could sing anything. It was wonderful to see the transition, hear the progress, and see the changes. They would actually climb through my window, skip their other classes, and beg me to sing bass and tenor.

Then I left at the end of that year and came back to the East Coast because my father had passed away, and I got a job teaching in Washington, D.C., and I taught there for another three-and-a-half or four years. While I was there, I got a job at a restaurant, the Tivoli Op-

A Conversation with Roberta Flack

Continued other side

era Restaurant. Life changed, on to Mr. Henry’s – “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face…”

QN: What music are you listening to these days?

RF: I am listening to Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Ralph McDonald, Marvin Gaye, James Ingram, Kings of Leon. I’m listening to Green Day, I’m listening to Bob Marley, I’m listening to the Black-Eyed Peas, Katy Perry, Angelique Kidjo, DJ Van. I’m listening to Barbra Streisand, I’m listening to Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra, and umm…Pa-varotti, Andrea Bocelli, Miles Davis. And that is the truth, that is what I am listening to…some of my old recordings and Eugene McDaniels.

QN: What inspired you to establish the Roberta Flack School of Music (RFSM) and what do you hope to accom-plish there?

RF: I need to get more for myself—that is how it is done—give more to get more. I am trying to give young people an opportunity to get something –get some of the things I had. So many fantastic people influenced me and gave all the inspira-tion they could make available for the taking – they made it available. All I had to do was just to say, “I want to know.” Basically, I want to know what love is, I want to know what music is, I want to know what all this good stuff is all about. And they opened up and let me have it. Just such a brilliant opportunity, I mean, I had a chance to meet James Baldwin who said to me, “If you’re going to sing—if you are going to do Bessie Smith and sing like Bessie Smith—then you have to learn how to walk, you know.” And it was such a very simple thing! The whole point was that everything that Bessie Smith did was in her voice and in her walk because she was not a very outgoing person. Really, she was really

very shy—there were not a lot of hand movements, she was a tall, sort of big woman, and she was very hippy and her hips moved like so, “Give me a…and a bottle of beer…,” and so it was about her hips. I just learned so much from people who knew more about my singing (at that point) and more about my performing than I did, and they gave me everything—every single, pos-sible thing that they could lay at my feet was available to me in terms of ideas…information.

QN: What personal attributes do you believe are most im-portant for a young musician to have?

RF: Open mind, a curiosity that is never-ending, dedica-tion to craft, focus, tirelessness, the ability to practice…forever. A love of melody, and harmony, and lyrics, and tempo. All of those characteristics and quali-ties – just a love of all of that, individually and collectively.

QN: Over the course of your incredible career, there have been numerous highlights. What moments have been the most personally meaningful to you?

RF: Hmmm…I did a Brazil-ian Suite in Tokyo in the late 1980s or early 1990s. We did the suite in Portuguese, and it was just the most beautiful music – the full Tokyo Sym-phony with the most wonder-ful singers and my band, and it was just great, absolutely great. That was a real highlight—that music, and I was fortunate enough to have my voice teacher accompany me. It was a wonderful experience.

I’ve had lots of highlights—many orchestral performances. I did a performance with the Boston Pops with Arthur Fie-dler, which scared me to pieces. I don’t know why, but I shook the whole time and he frowned at me. It makes me laugh, now. Moving right along…last year, thirteen Symphony concerts in

Australia. Wow!! Wow, again! Great! Twelve shows back-to-back in Japan at the Blue Note Jazz Club—big fun—never thought I would do that again, but with the right musicians and good health, the right road manager, the right everything - BIG difference. Had a good time. Brought the whole staff of the club on stage for the last show! WOW!

QN: What words of advice do you have for young musicians?

RF: First of all, know that you are young, that is the first thing. You are young and you are a musician, so you are blessed twice. These two things do not last forever, because you grow older, you lose your youth, you lose your agility, your flexibility, your memory, your focus, and you must hold on tightly to these things with great tenacity. Be committed to practice, to skill at your highest level, and to reaching always for a higher calling, a loftier gaining of accomplishment, never satis-fied, always looking for more – beauty in melody, harmony, tempo, change, aesthetics, dif-ference, uniqueness, boldness. Hold on to those things and do what you have to do in order to maintain that balance so that you can be flexible and pure at the same time–never bored—hold on to your musicianship, your skills—your singing skills, your art, your artistic ability—you have to hold on to them and you have to work at it.

It is not something that you can take for granted – you must not, you must not, you must not take it for granted.

Meditate—eat, pray, love...

QN: What has changed about being a musician since you began, are there challenges that musicians face today that did not exist when your career was just beginning?RF: Music wise—pop music wise—we live in a world that has very little originality. Most

of what we hear on the radio, in terms of pop music, is sam-pled. People can listen to your music and decide that they like it and say, “A-ha!” They snatch it and call it theirs, and it is hard for you to see them do that. You want to say, “Gimme my stuff back…,” “Think of your own funky riffs…think of your own beautiful melodies…think of your own harmonic sequences! Leave me the ‘ham samich’ alone!” We live in a world where young people are allowed to usurp your ideas—encouraged to, and call them their own. There is very little original music coming out of the minds and hearts and spir-its of young people today.

But there are some who are giving it up, and those who are giving it up are doing so, so fiercely, and with so much energy and intelligence that it is extremely powerful. Deli-cious to hear. Delicious to hear the young people who are part of the Sphinx Organization. Nowadays pop music young people are so bottled up in a kind of sphere where they are encouraged to not think so broadly, maybe not broadly enough, but to think quickly and to get something out that is an instant hit. They think in the hit mode, not in the brilliance mode, or good, or clever, or unique mode, therefore this “hit” lasts not so long. They think in the hit mode and in the computer mode, you know. And I do not think there is anything wrong with that necessarily, it is just that it is limiting and does not give them a chance to use all that they have to work with, intelligence wise, and in terms of their own and other people’s experience, their own ideas, other people’s ideas, other people they may be working with, thinking with their own heads, hearts and spirits, and using it is not something they are doing and therefore, they miss the real fun….MUSIC! FOR A WHILE…