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.
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 Perry Project in the notes section.
World Premiere
Three Spirituals
Three Spirituals recalls traditional elements of African American music, such as call-and-response and the sounds of hand clapping. But Perry also reshapes these traditional sacred songs using 20th-century techniques. The expressive energy of her arrangements stems from their rhythmic vitality, range of color, and formal concentration.
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.
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.