By Anuoluwapo Adefiwitan
The lights dimmed as University of Michigan professor Louise Toppin walked to the stage in her mustard-yellow turtleneck sweater. Toppin smiled as she leaned into the small wooden podium and introduced her presentation topic: Black vocal music.
Toppin held a lecture in The Joseph & Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall Monday as a part of Guest Artist Series for Black History Month at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. She was joined by University of California, Irvine professor Darryl Taylor.
Both have spent their careers exposing classical musicians to the thousands of unknown compositions by Black composers that span the religious and secular sectors. Their goal is to redefine the ideals of what Black classical music offers and who can sing it.
“The point is to give you a sense of how much there is to explore,” Toppin said.
Toppin said she wanted to prove that Black music was not niche but present and available to be incorporated into rotations of classical works.
“Many of the pieces represent our stories … that’s why I’ve really been pushing for so long for people to take a look at this repertoire.”
Toppin discussed Black vocal artists, composers and music. She provided ideas to help Black vocal music fully enter the sphere of classical music. Toppin said she found success implementing them in her career.
In the last two years, Toppin published five anthologies of Black vocal songs. She collects, performs and shares less-known works by Black composers. Her online database, the African Diaspora Music Project, holds thousands of non-religious and religious works.
Toppin said dialect diction classes can help people learn the vernacular found in certain Black songs. She also presented the George Shirley competition — an event she co-founded — where singers of all races compete with Black vocal music and attend classes where they would be exposed to more Black music.
Rhiannon Vaughn, a doctoral student in opera performance at the University of Maryland said she has only sung two pieces by an African-American composer in her career.
Although she had no desire to sing songs descriptive of Black trauma, Vaughn still felt unsure about performing other songs from Black Vocal repertoire — before Toppin’s lecture, that is.
“I was really nervous about it,” Vaughn said. “That nervousness is keeping me and so many people from incredible music that deserves to be a part of the classical canon.”
Both Toppin and Vaughn recognize that some people view Black vocal music as off-limits.
“If we only treat this as special programming, it’s never going to become part of the canon. We actually have to fully engage with it,” Vaughn said.
Toppin said she wants people of all races to sing Black vocal music. Still, she said, the music can be culturally sensitive.
Many songs are exclusive because they require context about traumatic events such as lynching and enslavement, Toppin said.
“I don’t want them singing about Black trauma as white people.” Toppin said.
Toppin said representation in university vocal departments helps Black music become present in curriculum.
Toppin recalled the UMD voice faculty saying her lecture gave them an opportunity to teach something new.
“To make a lasting impact, teachers have to assign the repertoire,” Toppin said.
Toppin’s work influenced her colleague at University of California, Irvine, professor Darryl Taylor, who joined her. Taylor spent his career as a professor pushing the performance of Black music. He also owns a database for African American music called the African American Art Song Alliance.
Taylor’s former student, doctoral student of musical arts VaShawn McIlwain-Lightfoot, remembered his efforts.
“One of the things Dr. Taylor was big on was pushing African-American art songs. Everybody was singing it, it matter who you were,” McIlwain-Lightfoot said.
Toppin said that as she has toured lecturing, she has seen Black audience members react positively.
“This is something we should be proud of and celebrate,” Toppin said. “I am hopeful because the more people hear these stories, the more they hear the music, the more it does become normalized and become a part of the fabric of what English art song in the United States should look like.”
Featured image: University of Michigan professor Louise Toppin presents her lecture on Black vocal music in The Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center as a part of the Guest Artist Series for Black History Month. Photo by Anuoluwapo Adefiwitan.