Projects

Bonds: Unforgotten

This project aims to create a catalogue of scores and parts of Margaret Bonds' instrumental music.  A prolific composer of Art Song and arranger of spirituals and hymns, Bonds' instrumental music has largely been eclipsed by her vocal works.  Additionally, with few exceptions, her race and gender in the early and mid 20th century largely prevented her instrumental works from being performed.  This project originated with a performing edition of Bonds' Montgomery Variations for the University of Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.  The music resonated with me, the orchestra and our audience so much that I wanted to know more, and get to know her music more.  It is my hope that this work will bring the works of a talented and unfairly forgotten composer to as many audiences as possible!

Creating the Parts

Since the majority of Bonds' instrumental music was never performed, the only record of it is in her hand-written manuscripts.  It was necessary to manually enter the entirety of the Variations into music notation software to create a working score and parts. While time consuming and painstaking, a number of my UConn students were willing and dedicated assistants in the process of bringing Bonds' music to life.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Tommy Knowles, Christina Sack, and Natalie Wong for their hard work, and commitment to this important project!

Early Performances

Since the Variations' world premiere in December 2018 by the UCONN Symphony Orchestra, numerous orchestras have taken on the work including the DuBois Orchestra (Boston, MA), Santa Fe Youth Symphony (Santa Fe, NM), Nashville Symphony (Nashville, TN), and many more!