Dr. Nora Willauer, who received her DMA from the joint degree program at Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University, and who is cello instructor at the University of Akron, will discuss the composer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson and his work for solo cello,  ''Lamentations: Black/Folk Song Suite'' (1973), which Perkinson himself described as “a reflection and statement of a people's crying out.”  Dr. Willauer’s presentation will conclude with a performance of this piece, filled with rhythmic energy, bluesy color, and elegiac expressivity. 

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

Born in New York City, Perkinson attended the High School of Music and Art in the city and then NYU. He later transferred to the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied composition, and from which he received both bachelor's and master's degrees. He also conducting, in the Netherlands with Franco Ferrara and Dean Dixon, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Perkinson was, perhaps somewhat confusingly, named for the black Romantic-era composer Samuel Coleridge-Tayllor. He had a wide-ranging musical career which included - beyond his work as a “classical” composer - stints as a film score composer, as a jazz pianist, and as an arranger for the likes of Marvin Gaye and Harry Belafonte. Perkinson co-founded the Symphony of the New World, the first racially integrated orchestra in the United States. He was also Music Director for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the Jerome Robbins American Theatre Lab.

Tickets: $5 at the door only (no advance sales), free to CCS members and Judson residents

CRUCIAL VENUE LOCATION INFORMATION While 2181 Ambleside Drive is the “official “ address of Judson Park, the Auditorium is best reached through the entry located on Chestnut Hills Drive. Parking options include limited spaces on the Judson Park’s circle drive and an abundance of street parking along Chestnut Hills Drive. PLEASE NOTE THE LOCATION IS JUDSON PARK, NOT JUDSON MANOR (which is “down the hill” closer to the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Wade Lagoon)! See detailed map: