"Dear Friends & Gentle Hearts" is a new album featuring nearly 150 minutes of art songs by African American composers.
The recordings on the album feature soprano Louise Toppin and tenor/countertenor Darryl Taylor.
Louise Toppin is a professor of music at the University of Michigan and internationally renowned for her performances of operas, oratorios and art songs.
Darryl Taylor is the Chair of Voice Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and is the founder of the African American Art Song Alliance.
A Detroit native and alumnus of the University of Michigan and Interlochen Arts Camp, Taylor recently spoke with Classical IPR about the new album.
Taylor says he and Toppin met as graduate students at the University of Michigan, where they both studied with legendary tenor George Shirley.
In the intervening years, Taylor founded the African American Art Song Alliance while Toppin founded Videmus. Both organizations promote the music of African American and other historically underrepresented musicians.
Toppin and Taylor frequently collaborate, and this album was an outgrowth of a performance they gave of Hale Smith's arrangement of the spiritual "Balm in Gilead" a few years ago.
The album's title "Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts," Taylor points out, is not only a poem by Countee Cullen but it also reflects his and Toppin's professional and personal relationship.
In the interview, Taylor spoke about how he found and accepted his voice as a countertenor at the urging of his teacher George Shirley.
He also explained how he and Toppin went about selecting the repertoire for this album and what constitutes an "African American art song essential."
"One needs to have a basic grounding in the great expanse of music that's available," he said. "It's not all from a particular generation, and even people who are vested in the study of spirituals may find something new to them."
Taylor also spoke to musicians who might wonder if they're "allowed" to sing spirituals.
"My own position is that spirituals are, first and foremost, American folk music," Taylor said. "It comes from a difficult time in our country's past, so one must always approach the music with that understanding and deference and never with a sense of derision."
"If I approach any music that isn't my background, I have to study and find an understanding," Taylor explained. "If you're going to sing spirituals, you must know the stories behind them. Every spiritual comes with stories. Our primary goal as singers is to be storytellers. We must tell stories."
The entire album (nearly 150 minutes in length) is available to stream or purchase on all major platforms. Listen on Spotify above (a free Spotify account is required).
Selections from the album heard in this interview (all selections feature countertenor Daryl Taylor and pianist Alastair Edmonstone)
Robert Owens, Rimbaud Cabaret: “Au Cabaret-vert”
Florence Price, Encore Songs
Hale Smith, Balm in Gilead (with Louise Toppin)
Dave Ragland, I Believe
