The Paradoxes of Black Classical Music with Kira Thurman

Sound Expertise

The African-American pianist Hazel Harrison played with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1904, and was promptly forgotten. But Kira Thurman remembers. Her incredible book Singing Like Germans tells the rich, textured stories of Black classical musicians who performed in Germany, which provided a safe haven from American segregation, even though they still faced racism. A conversation about the paradoxes of race and colorblindness in classical music, and much, much more.
Kira Thurman is associate professor of history, German studies, and musicology at University of Michigan.
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