University News
WIU School of Music Guest Lecture and Recital March 28
March 27, 2024
MACOMB, IL - -The Western Illinois University School of Music will present a Guest Lecture and Guest Recital at 2 p.m. Thursday, March 28 in the University Union Lincoln Room.
The guest lecture, "Lifting as She Climbed: Mollie Fines and Music in African American Women's Clubs," will be given by University of Iowa Professor of Musicology Marian Wilson Kimber.
At their 1926 meeting, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs adopted the song, "Lifting as We Climb." Composed by Wichita clubwoman Mollie Fines, the song drew on the organization's motto in stressing education and racial uplift for African American women. Fines served as the NACWC's music director, and after her tenure, she remained an important musical force in African American communities in Kansas into the 1940s. The NACWC's early leadership was largely upper class; 40% of African American women were employed in the 1920s, and Fines was a domestic worker. Through her club and church affiliations, Fines promoted the music of African American composers, organizing state music contests and directing choral performances and pageants on racial and religious themes. Fines's musical activities in Kansas helped subsidize educational and social initiatives, such as funding scholarships and childcare facilities. Her engagement with the NACWC reveals how the music-making of Black women's groups was deeply entwined with philanthropic efforts to meet the pressing needs of African American communities.
Wilson Kimber is a professor of Musicology at the University of Iowa. She is the author of numerous articles and book chapters about the composers Felix Mendelssohn and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and women's roles in musical life. Wilson Kimber's book, The Elocutionists: Women, Music, and the Spoken Word (from University of Illinois Press), received the Society for American Music's H. Earle Johnson Publication Subvention. As part of the duo, Red Vespa, with Natalie Landowski, Wilson Kimber has been performing the compositions she explores in her book since 2017.
The guest recital, "In a Woman's Voice: Spoken-Word Composition by American Women," by Red Vespa will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28 in the COFAC Recital Hall.
The performing duo of Wilson Kimber (University of Iowa) and WIU Assistant Professor of Piano at Natalie Landowski (WIU) return to the COFAC recital stage to present an evening of musical readings created by women. Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women elocutionists toured North America to great acclaim, and many of them created works for performance. Wilson Kimber discovered this repertoire while conducting research for her book The Elocutionists: Women, Music, and the Spoken Word (from University of Illinois Press), and began to perform these works with pianist Natalie Landowski. Their ensemble, Red Vespa, is also active in the creation of new works in this genre.
Landowski is an assistant professor of Piano at WIU, where she also serves as the Keyboard Area Coordinator. An active performer, Landowski has presented solo and chamber ensemble performances for the University of Iowa's Piano Sundays and Steinway Extravaganza series, and at the Coralville Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, the Upper Bay Philharmonic Society, and Irvine City Hall, as well as other venues.
The lecture and performance are open free for general seating.
For more information, call the COFAC Recital Hall office at (309) 298-1843 or visit wiu.edu/recitalhall.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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