Julia Perry

Julia Perry was an American composer, conductor, singer and teacher born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1924. She studied voice, piano, and composition at Westminster Choir College from 1943 - 1948 earning both an undergraduate and graduate degree. In the summer of 1951, she studied composition with twelve-tone Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. Between 1952 and 1957, Perry was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships, continued her studies with Dallapicolla in Florence, Italy; studied with Nadia Boulanger at The American Conservatory at Fontainebleau where she was awarded the prestigious Prix Fontainebleau for her Viola Sonata; attended the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy studying conducting; and toured Europe with support from the United States Information Agency.

JULIA PERRY’s
Early life in lexington, ky

Julia Amanda Perry (1924-1979) 
BY: YVONNE GILES
November 2021

Nearly one hundred years ago, Julia Amanda Perry made her first appearance in Lexington in 1924. She was the fifth child born to Dr. Abraham and Mrs. America Heath Perry. Clara, America and Lucie were her older siblings. The youngest sister, Lettie Alycia, would be born five years later.

Julia was blessed with an extended family that included her grandmother Clara Perry, two great-uncles, Leon and William and their wives, Birdie and Ella Taylor. They lived in town, within four blocks of the family’s home on Vertner, now Eastern Avenue. Aunt Lucie and Archie Taylor, her husband lived in Dayton, Ohio but most certainly traveled by train to see her family.

With the number of adults around, especially Grandmother Clara, there would be no lack of support for this young family. African American family tradition dictates that older members offer guidance and helping hands to the younger. Older siblings were directed – sometimes under dire warning if they failed - to ‘watch out’ for the youngest. In turn they knew elder members would need care toward the end of their lives.

We find the Taylor/Perry families in East Lexington, one of the rapidly developing residential areas of the city. According to census data, 7, 171 people, an increase of 133%, had moved to Lexington following Emancipation in 1865.  The demand for lots on which to build is not unlike the development of property in this day and time. Owners of large acreage subdivided their land to sell to African Americans who wanted to own their homes. Gunntown, Goodloetown and Kinkeadtown were subdivisions in which new buildings appeared. 

Grandmother Clara, unlike most, bought two lots in 1880 in Gunntown and built their two-story house so that it was surrounded by a large yard.  It remained in the family until 1934 and still stands. She was married to Abraham Perry, a Thoroughbred jockey, turned trainer. He worked with notable breeders not only here in Kentucky but also in New York, Maryland, and Illinois. He began training Thoroughbreds in 1875 in his native Woodford County. In 1885, the years of perfecting his skill, paid off. The Thoroughbred Joe Cotton won the Kentucky, Tennessee, Coney Island derby races and nine other handicap and stakes races in the U.S. To cap his career, he became an owner of Thoroughbreds and opened his own training stable. His 1908 obituary stated, ‘he was one of the most successful race horse trainers in Kentucky as well as one of the most substantial Negro citizens of Lexington.’ 

The Kentucky Association racetrack had been established in 1823 in East Lexington. The old track stood on sixty-five acres at the junction of Race and Fifth streets. Abraham was one of five trainers who lived near the track. Fellow trainer, Edward Dudley Brown and his family, lived two doors from Perry. Brown would become the first African American trainer inducted into the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame in 1984. Raleigh Colston, Sr., trainer for Chinn and Forsythe, lived on East Second Street. Lee Christy, trainer for J. B. Harper, lived on Chestnut Street. Courtney Mathews, trainer for the McDowell Stable at Ashland Estate, lived on Breckinridge. All their homes still stand; Mathews home is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Clara managed her husband’s earnings to maintain their home and provide for the education of their children. She paid the tuition for their son and daughter to attend Chandler Normal School. It had been opened in 1872 for African Americans by the American Missionary Association.  Upon graduation in 1903, Abraham attended Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee. An announcement in the paper stated that Abraham was the youngest among three hundred graduates and because of his education at Chandler had achieved high marks on his medical exam. He opened his practice in 1908 at his family home. Lucie, after graduating, attended Fisk University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. She earned a degree in music and became a music instructor. She married Archie Taylor, a physician, in 1914. The next year Abraham married America Heath, a nurse, in Columbus, Ohio.

Julia and her siblings may not have been born with silver spoons in their mouths, but they did have opportunities not available to most African Americans. Professionally, economically, socially and culturally, the Perry family would be considered upper-middle-class.

connect: the life & music of julia perry

KET “KENTUCKY LIFE” SEGMENT

OPENING NIGHT: HOME

september 20, 2019
SINGLETARY CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Thomas Heuser, Conductor Finalist

Short Piece for Orchestra

SORROW, STRENGTH & LOVE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2021
The lyric theatre & cultural arts center

Kelly Corcoran, Guest Conductor
Dr. Yvonne Giles, Historian
Courtney Porter, Mezzo-Soprano

Community Room performance
(hosted by Erin Fung, acting principal clarinet)

Symphony No. 13 for Wind Quintet
Serenity for solo clarinet

MAIN HALL

Pastoral (feat. Michael O’Brien, flute)
Stabat Mater (Courtney Porter, mezzo-soprano)

Program notes by: A. Kori hill

Symphony No. 13 for Wind Quintet (1976) • Serenity for Clarinet or Oboe (1972) • Pastoral (1959) • Stabat Mater (1951)

Julia Perry composed and studied (she counted Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger among her instructors) squarely within the modernist and post-modernist environments of the mid – 20th century. Genre conventions, diverse tonalities, and timbral possibilities of old and new instruments were applied, rejected, and transformed in highly individualistic ways by Perry and her contemporaries.

Whether an orchestral vocal work drawing on medieval-era Christian hymns and poetry; a merging of symphonic and chamber music genres; or a character piece, Perry approached and dismantled genre conventions with a fresh and informed eye. Her most consistent compositional tools included 12-tone technique, rhythmic idiosyncrasy, melodic expressivity, contrapuntal motion, and dissonant tonalities.

Perry completed her Symphony No. 13 for Wind Quintet following a stroke. Due to its shorter length and instrumentation, it might seem strange she would call the work a symphony rather than a quintet. But while the instrumentation may be that of a quintet it is symphonic in content and scope. Divided into four movements, Perry inverts the standard moderate-slow-funny-fast symphonic model. After a moderate and rhythmically complex first movement, the second movement is blisteringly quick, as well as harmonically and rhythmically adventurous. Rather than layering compound rhythms within simple meter, the third movement features more frequent meter changes (though not nearly as many as the Divertimento). The final movement is a return to an exciting tempo, harmonic variety, and rhythmic creativity.

Serenity for Clarinet or Oboe balances a moderate tempo and idiosyncratic tonality with a rich expressivity. In this way, the work is not static or weighed down, but moving somewhere. It might be linear. It might be circular. It’s less about the destination than the journey.

Pastoral is dark and meditative. The flute moves the work forward with interjections, responses, and layering with the strings. Of note are the moments of alignment between the flute and first violin, blurring the line between woodwind and string instrument in a stunning, haunting timbral blend.

Stabat Mater for contralto and string orchestra is Perry’s best known and most programmed work. Also dedicated to the composer’s mother, she wrote the vocal part with Marian Anderson in mind (though Anderson never performed it). Perry’s Stabat Mater engages with the original Stabat Mater in title and theme: the latter is a 13th Christian hymn, chronicling the Virgin Mary’s witness of her son’s crucifixion. Perry sets Jacopone da Todi’s Latin poem about a spectator at the crucifixion, who is first detached then invested in Christ’s sacrificial burden. The accompanying English translation was done by Perry.

Stabat Mater was well received nationally and internationally. For some, it is Perry’s most expansive and visionary work. Divided into ten sections, dissonant tonalities, melodic richness, and intense emotionality are used to great effect. Perry’s standard rhythmic complexity is on full display across the ensemble; and the dramatic range given to the vocalist highlights the composer’s vision of Anderson in the role of contralto.

LEGACY - THE PERRY FAMILY

OCTOBER 1, 2022
LUIGART 110

Adrienne Godfrey Thakur, Host
Dr. Yvonne Giles, Historian & African Cemetery No. 2 Board Member
Alicia Helm McCorvey, soprano
Whit Whitaker, tenor
Jacob Coleman, piano

LexPhil String Quartet:
Daniel Mason, violin
Julie Lastinger, violin
Henry Haffner, viola
Benjamin Karp, cello

Julia Perry
How Beautiful Art the Feet
Free at Last
Lord! What Shall I Do?
I’m a Poor L’il Orphan in this Worl’
By the Sea

2022-23 SEASON FINALE: BLOOM

MAY 20, 2023
SINGLETARY CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Mélisse Brunet, Music Director

Homunculus C.F.
featuring Sandbox Percussion