Shining a light on the music and life of Julia Perry (1924–1979)
Composer, Julia Perry at home in Florence. (Photo by David Lees/Getty Images)
“How Does a Shadow Shine?”
US Poet Laureate Rita Dove
Sonata Mulattica
W. W. Norton, 2009
The Julia Perry Project
Julia Perry was born in Lexington, KY in 1924, into a talented family of musicians, teachers, doctors, and horse trainers. She received an exceptional musical education in Akron, OH, at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and with prestigious teachers from New York to Paris to Florence, Italy. In the late 40s and throughout the 1950s she enjoyed great success as a composer, vocal soloist, and conductor—principally in Italy. Returning to New York and Akron in the 1960s, she found that doors were not open to her as they had been in Europe. Beginning in 1970, she suffered a series of debilitating strokes that left her paralyzed on the right side, and unable to speak. She continued composing by learning to write with her left hand. Julia Perry died of cardiac arrest in 1979, and is buried in Glendale Cemetery in Akron.
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Help the Akron Symphony shine a light on Julia Perry’s music and legacy by making a donation online. Please indicate it’s for the Julia Perrry Project in the notes section.
Recordings
Akron Symphony
World Premiere:
Frammenti dalle lettere di Santa Caterina (1953)
(Fragments from the Letters of Saint Catherine)
Recorded live on November 12, 2022
EJ Thomas Hall, The University of Akron
Pastoral (1959)
Recorded live on January 14, 2023
EJ Thomas Hall, The University of Akron
World Premiere Recording:
Homage to Vivaldi
Live reading session: March 29, 2022
E.J. Thomas Hall, University of Akron
Four Spirituals (1965–67) excerpts 2:52
Symphony No. 10 “Soul Symphony” (1972) excerpts 2:29
Homage to Vivaldi (1964) excerpts 4:57
EXO (Experiential Orchestra, NYC)
James Blachly, Music Director
Writings
Podcast: Christopher Wilkins: Speech at the Akron Roundtable December 8, 2022 (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts)
Christopher Wilkins: Speech at the Akron Roundtable December 8, 2022 (Transcript)
The most complete source of information currently available on Julia Perry’s life and works. The book includes similar coverage of composers Undine Smith Moore, Margaret Bonds, Irene Britton Smith, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Valerie Capers, Mary Watkins, and Regina Harris Baiocchi.
From Spirituals to Symphonies: African American Women Composers and Their Music by Helen Walker-Hill (University of Illinois Press, 2007).
Overview of Julia Perry by Maria Popova on her blog, The MarginalianThe Tanglewood Archive
Julia Perry attended the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood—the summer home of the Boston Symphony—in the summers of 1949, 1951, and 1953. The head of the Composition Department was Aaron Copland. There, she studied with Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola, who invited her to continue her studies with him in Italy, beginning in the fall of 1951. Julia Perry is the first entry in a recent online exhibit prepared for the Boston Symphony by Liv Oster (Harvard College, Class of 2025), Women Composition Students of the Tanglewood Music Center.
Published Works
For much of the information contained on this website, we are grateful to the late Helen-Walker Hill for the research contained in her indispensable book, From Spirituals to Symphonies: African American Women Composers and Their Music; University of Illinois Press, 2007
Carl Fischer
ORCHESTRAL
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra score and parts prepared by Roger Zahab
BAND
Symphony No. 6 for Concert Band
CHORAL
Carillon Heigh-Ho
Galaxy
Choral
| Be Merciful unto Me | also UCB; IU |
| Our Thanks to Thee | also UCB; IU |
| Song of Our Savior | also UCB; IU |
| Ye Who Seek the Truth | UCB; IU |
Vocal
Free at Last
How Beautiful Are the Feet
I’m a Poor Little Orphan Girl
McLaughlin and Reilly (Boston)
Vocal
| Lord, What Shall I Do? | UCB |
Charles Scribner’s Sons
Piano
Miniature in The New Scribner Library 11, compiled by Howard Hanson, 1972
Hildegard Publishing Co.
Prelude for Piano in Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music, edited by Helen Walker-Hill
Peer Classical
Dramatic
Cask of Amontillado, The
Selfish Giant, The
Orchestral
| Frammenti dalle lettere di Santa Caterina | see “Choral” |
| Homage to Vivaldi | same as Requiem; same as Vivaldiana |
| Piano Concerto No. 2 in Two Uninterrupted Speeds | see note below on unpublished Concerto No. 2 |
| Short Piece for Large Orchestra/Study for Orchestra | same as Study for Orchestra |
| Short Piece for Small Orchestra | |
| Stabat Mater | |
Choral
Frammenti dalle lettere di Santa Caterina
Vocal
| Stabat Mater | contralto & string 4tet/string orchestra |
Chamber Ensemble
Humunculus, C.F. Pastoral
Roger Zahab
Prelude for Strings, based on Prelude for Piano (published by Helen Walker-Hill)
Unpublished Works
Oral History
Music Director Christopher Wilkins reflects on the life of Julia Perry with Ophelia Averitt, former president of the Akron Chapter of NAACP, and Roger Zahab, composer, conductor, violinist, and lecturer.
Support our Mission
Help the Akron Symphony shine a light on Julia Perry’s music and legacy by making a donation.
Please note for the Julia Perry Project in the notes section.