The Ladies Speak

Margaret Bonds

Beatrice Nicolas discusses the folk idioms and civil rights struggles that inspired the composition of Margaret Bonds' Troubled Water, which the British concert pianist recorded on her 2024 EP Black and Classical a mere four years after the suite was finally published.

BONUS EPISODE - Full Interview with Beatrice Nicolas on Margaret Bonds

Hear the full interview with Beatrice Nicolas as she dives into the folk idioms and civil rights struggles that inspired the work of Margaret Bonds, as well the friendship of the composer and pianist with Florence Price and poet Langston Hughes, and her journey through some of the most turbulent social justice struggles of the 20th century.

Florence Price

Florence Price is now widely known as the first Black woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra, as well as the composer of over 300 symphonies, concertos, sonatas and songs that show an astounding virtuosity and range. Her earlier work has received less attention, but in this episode we explore the extraordinary array of influences in it through the journey of award-winning pianist and scholar Karen Walwyn, who followed Price's path from Little Rock to Chicago as she prepared to record an album of the composer's nascent piano compositions.

Helen Eugenia Hagan

Award-winning pianist and Black Chicago Renaissance scholar Dr. Samantha Ege introduces listeners to composer and pianist Helen Eugenia Hagan, who wrote a virtuosic piano concerto while still a student at Yale University. Dr. Ege also recounts her 2022 collaboration to bring the work back to the stage where it debuted more than a century earlier.

BONUS EPISODE - Ivory Duo interview on Helen Eugenia Hagan

London-based Ivory Piano Duo Ensemble's Natalie Tsaldarakis and Panayotis Archontides talk about their collaboration with composer Lola Perrin to transcribe Hagan's Piano Concerto in C Minor from a handwritten score provided by Yale University.