Black Music & White America – 13th May

I’m giving a talk at the University of Manchester on the 13th May about my recent undergraduate dissertation, titled ‘This Is Our Music: Black Music & White America’. I’ll be briefly outlining aspects of the study, which looks at the evolution of black music – from minstrelsy to free jazz via blues, bebop and rock & roll – against the backdrop of the civil rights movement and dominant white society. It’s a side of my musical interests I rarely get a chance to address publicly, but jazz and blues are great passions of mine, so it has been great to write this dissertation over the last few months.

The talk will be part of an Undergraduate Musicology Forum at the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, and will also feature discussions by fellow students Rob Bentall on the late works of Steve Reich, David Tagg-Oram on orchestral funding, and Imogen Walker on the immigrant musicians of the Beating Wing Orchestra.