Website of the Week!

by Erica Papillion-Posey

This site is a beautiful tribute and reference for African-Americans in the classical arts and those wanting to learn more about African-American classical arts history!

AfriClassical.com founded by William J. Zick was launched in 2000 as a nonprofit educational venture promoting awareness of African Heritage in Classical Music.  The first page was devoted to Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges and within a few months was joined by pages on several other composers and musicians of African descent.

Here you will meet 52 composers, conductors and instrumental performers – Africans, African Americans and Afro-Europeans.  Many are alive today, but one lived 500 years ago!  These artists are unknown to most of us, yet are so numerous this site can  present only a fraction of them.  They have made enduring contributions to Classical Music. Several have composed, conducted and performed Classical Music.  Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799) of Guadeloupe is one of those multi-talented musicians.   Cuban classical guitarist Leo Brouwer (b. 1939) is another.  Over 100 sound samples can be heard at the Audio page and at the biographical pages.  The links at left lead to a Black History Quiz covering everyone profiled at the site and a Guest Book in which you are invited to leave your comments.
http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/index.html