W&M Featured Events
[PAST EVENT] Visiting Lecture: "The Choral Spiritual Arrangements of Undine Smith Moore"
Access & Features
- Open to the public
Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989), an African American educator and composer, is best known today for her compositions for choir and especially for her arrangements of spirituals. Granddaughter of slaves, she grew up in Petersburg, Virginia, and attended Fisk University, the Juilliard School and Columbia University. She was a member of the music department at Virginia State University (located in her hometown) from 1927 until 1972. Among her many honors, she was named Virginia music laureate in 1977. Moore was known to many as the “Dean of Black Women Composers”.
Dr. Belfield speaks about Moore’s early years, education, career, compositions / arrangements, and choral writing style as it relates to spirituals and addresses her unique collection of spiritual melodies heard only in Southside Virginia. Belfield presents for the first time unpublished memories and personal reflections about Moore by her pastor, daughter and Moore’s close colleague and friend, Altona Trent Johns, with whom Moore founded the Black Music Center at Virginia State University in 1969.
Roy L. Belfield, Jr., a native of Petersburg, Virginia, began his undergraduate studies in music at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Master’s degrees in music education and organ performance from Florida State University in Tallahassee, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Dr. Belfield is Minister of Music/Organist at Hampton Baptist Church in Virginia.
Contact
James I. Armstrong, Jr., Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choirs, Music Department, William & Mary, P.O. Box 8795, Williamsburg, VA 23187. 757 221-1085 (office) 757 221-3171 (fax) [[w|jiarms]]