Hello! My name is A. Kori Hill, but please call me Dr. Kori. I’ll be taking over for Dr. Tammy Kernodle as a writer for the Classics for Kids blog because she is super busy writing articles, giving lectures, teaching classes, and planning festivals; you know, typical musicologist stuff! I will continue her work of making this blog a place where you learn about music you didn’t know. By reading this blog, you’ll get to think about music in new and insightful ways.
As a kid, I loved reading about classical music as much as playing it. But it wasn’t until I got to college and started a research project with Dr. Tammy that I realized the classical music books I read for fun took a lot of research to write. When curious music lovers like me conduct research, we dig into archives and read many books, looking for answers to questions about music and composers.
Because of what I learned in music classes from professors and musicologists like Dr. Tammy, I could pick up a book and read that Antonio Vivaldi was a red-headed priest-composer who wrote A LOT of concertos, that Samuel Coleridge-Taylor wrote his violin concerto for the American virtuoso Maud Powell; and that Mary Lou Williams adapted her style to every era of 20th century jazz.
Now, as a musicologist (and sometimes violinist!) who researches networks and repertoire of Black classical artists, I’ve realized that the classical music you hear or read about doesn’t always highlight or feature the diversity in this art form. I’ll share information and tools so you can learn more about the diversity in classical music. I look forward to our journey together and can’t wait to share my first music post with you later this month!
