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Keyboard Music by Lettie Beckon Alston
Lettie Alston, piano/electronics
Lettie Beckon Alston was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 13, 1953 to her loving parents J.C. and Lucy Beckon. She now resides in Michigan as Associate Professor of Music at Oakland University.
At the age of 15 she began piano lessons at the Bailey's Temple School of Music, studying with Pearl Roberts McCullom. After graduating from Central High School in Detroit, her parents encouraged her to attend Wayne State University. She received her bachelor and master degrees in Music Composition from WSU, studying composition with James Hartway and piano with Frank Murch, Wesley Fishwish and principal teacher Mischa Kottler. Continuing her education, she was the first African-American composer to obtain a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan, where she studied composition with Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom and Eugene Kurzt. Alston also worked with George Wilson in the electronic music area. Not having lost a passion for the piano, she continued piano studies with Robert Hord and Benning Dexter.
Dr. Alston went on to teach at Wayne State University in 1983, the Detroit Public School in 1986, Oakland University as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 1987 and Eastern Michigan University in 1988. Returning to Oakland University in 1991, she is now artistic director of the Lettie Alston and Friends Concert Series. The production features university faculty, local and international artists in the performing arts.
Dr. Alston's music has been featured widely in eastern and mid-western states, and Austria. Alston has received commissions from the Oakland University Community Chorus, the Great Lakes Men's Chorus, The Lyric Chamber Ensemble and others. Her music scores, The Eleventh Hour and Anxiety were performed as finalist compositions in 1992 and 1999 (Alston was the first female composer from Michigan to make the finals) and Biblical Women was a selected semi-finalist composition in 1998 for the National Unisys African-American Symposium Competitions. The Detroit Symphony and Unisys Corporation sponsored this event. Her work, Memories was premiered with Il Trio dell Musica, in Salzburg, Austria and her Four Short Pieces for Soprano and Piano was featured at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Alston has had many other performances in Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Boston and Illinois.
Alston has premiered on piano and electronic keyboards her scores entitled, Biblical Women (the piano and voice version), Rhapsody No. 4, Moods and Sonata of the Day, No.1 for piano; Diverse Imagery Spiritual Awakening and The End Times for electronic keyboards on her Lettie Alston and Friends programs.
Dr. Alston is a recipient of the Music Study Club of Metropolitan Detroit Award and numerous faculty grants. Alston's music has been recorded on compact disc for the Leonarda, Albany, Videmus and Calvin College labels. Dr. Alston is a recent recipient of the Oakland University Research Fellowship Grant, 2000.
Flavio Varani was born in Sao Paulo and began his distinguished piano performance career at the age of seven as a featured soloist on Brazilian Radio and TV. Two years later he toured with the Brazilian National Symphony Orchestra. At 13, he received a scholarship from the French Government to study with the legendary Magda Tagliaferro in France and Austria. Mr. Varani, based in Paris for seven years, was heard in concerts in the USSR, Poland, France, Austria, Germany, Spain and Italy. When he was 18 years old he won First Prize at the Chopin Intermational Competition in Mallorca, Spain. In the United States he studied with Rosina Lhevinne and Artur Balsam at the Juilliard School of Music and later received a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music. He received the Harold Bauer Award from the Manhattan School of Music, “Musician of the Year” from the Michigan Foundation for the Arts, and was designated “Best Soloist of the Year” by the Brazilian Art Critics Association.
Flavio Varani has performed in major music centers throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Brooklyn Academy of Music, Moscow Conservatory and Munich Gasteig. He has been heard at numerous music festivals including the Newport Music Festival, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Meadow Brook Festival, and the Cotignac Festival in France. Among his numerous orchestral engagements have been appearances with conductor Gunter Herbig, Sir Neville Marriner, Semyon Bychkov, Lukas Foss, Georg Schmohe and Eleazar de Carvallo. Mr. Varani returns annually to Japan as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. He has been guest artist with the Vienna-Tokyo Ensemble in performances at Bungagakai Hall in Tokyo.
Mr. Varani is presently Professor of Music in the Department of Music, Theatre and Dance at Oakland University. He has performed on Maison Danté, Orion Master and Paulinas COMEPRecordings.
Cedric Darnell Alston is a Computer Systems Analyst at Electronic Data Systems in Troy, Michigan. He is a very accomplished composer and performer on piano, synthesizer in the Metropolitan Detroit area. In his free-lance career as a musician, Mr. Alston has performed locally in the Meadow Brook Estate Christmas Concert, the Oakland University production of West Side Story, the Montreux Jazz and Frog Island Jazz Festivals. He also performed with the Lettie Alston and Friends in the Community program at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, where he performed in three Michigan premieres of electronic music, Echoes of the Spirit, Daylight and Secrets.
Mr. Alston established the group `Four Sight', a local four piece band which have worked together on special occasions since 1979. Mr. Alston studied private piano with Darwin Schwarzt and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wayne State University with majors in computer science and music.
Roderic S. Leon was born in New York and raised in Michigan. He studied classical piano with Sarah Gustin and Irene Rosenberg Grau. He majored in piano at the Interlochen Arts Academy and worked in the studio of Louis Kohnop and Fernando Laires. Continuing his studies at Marlboro College, Mr. Leon studied with David Golub, Louis Moyse and also Blanche Moyse. He received his BA with a plan of concentration in piano and chamber music. Mr. Leon furthered his studies more intensely with Bela Nagy and Fredrik Wanger at Boston University, receiving a MusM degree in piano performance. Mr. Leon is presently a Systems Engineer at Kmart in Troy, Michigan, but is active in freelance chamber music performances and professional artists productions in the Metropolitan Detroit and Boston areas.
This recording is entitled Keyboard Maniac because of the excitement electronics bring to Art Music, and Lettie Alston says, “as a composer, pianist and organist writing for the piano and electronic medium has been a Spiritual Awakening for me.” Lettie seeks to communicate to the audience something of her experience, her personality, her mind, and indeed her soul. Music should not always be a solution to a problem she says, but rather an expression of one's own feelings. Lettie believes that her strong historical, theoretical and performance background has influenced the eclectic range of her original keyboard works. She has a strong classical background with strong religious influences, musical theatre awareness and diverse cultural connections with crossover classic-pop styles.
The electronic performances on this recording involve no computer programmed or sequenced materials. As a performing organist, Lettie views the virtuoso performing electronic medium used today as an extension of the organ tradition, not as a replacement for acoustical instruments. Electronic keyboards and synthesizers are legitimate instruments in their own sense and are enjoyed by many virtuoso-performing artists. With the wealth of historical influences, electronics have moved from mechnical waveforms to real sensitive performance level equipment and this excites Lettie. Electronic keyboards have become one of the most popular and sophisticated instruments used today in secular and sacred music performances. The electronic keyboard has not replaced the acoustical piano, but extends the performing pianist's options in selecting a variety of sound resources. Lettie Alston and Friends hope you enjoy the performances on this two-disc CD recording.
The Journey: The Longest Mile (2000) was inspired at the Second Annual Symposium of Black Women Composers and is dedicated to Effie Gardner, Professor Emeritus at Hampton University. The work explores the extreme ranges of the piano.
Four Moods for Piano (1993) was premiered by the composer on April 29, 1993 at the Unisys African-American Composers' Forum Chamber Music Concert sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Unisys Corporation. The titles of each movement are Playfully, Mysteriously, Gloomy and Joyfully. The musical style of the work juxtaposes diverse elements including dissonant harmonies, jazz-derived rhythms and some unusual timbre effects created by playing directly on the strings of the piano.
Three Rhapsodies for Piano (1994) is a collection of pieces written especially for the Unisys African-American Forum Chamber Music Concert, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Michigan, April 7, 1994 and was also premiered by the composer. Each is an independent character piece involving a specific technical execution. The three pieces are subtitled, Etude, Nocturne, and Dream Waltz. The pieces are published with Vivace Press and have been recorded on the Dark Fires compact disc with Albany Records.
Sonata of the Day, No 1 (2000) was premiered by the composer on February 19, 2000. The piece was written as a tribute to Stanley Hollingsworth in his 75th birthday year. The first movement is presented in Sonata Allegro form with a touch of imitative counterpoint; the second movement abruptly takes off with a ground bass line superimposed with the bellowing birthday theme, which is used as a refrain throughout the movement, and the last movement paraphrases a piano motive taken from the final movement of the composer's vocal work, Biblical Women. This movement has a quasi rondo nature.
Piano Variations on Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing (2000) was premiered by the composer on September 10, 2000 at the University of Dayton for the Celebration of African American Sacred Music Symposium. The piece was dedicated to Dr. Donna Cox for her contributions in showcasing new music by Black composers. The work is a traditional set of three variations influenced by Romantic piano writings which uses the theme from the Black National Anthem, “Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing” by James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson.
Keyboard Maniac (1997) was written especially for the Professional Artists Series, entitled, Keyboard Mania with Lettie Alston and Friends at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan on February 2, 1997. The composer premiered the piece under the title of Keyboard Maniac, but renamed the piece as Rhapsody No. 4 to be included in the published Rhapsody collection. The composer subtitled the fourth Rhapsody, Toccata because its original intent was to present a showy keyboard work with technical skills. Rhapsody No. 4 is also published with Vivace Press and has been recorded on the Fare Ye Well CD with Videmus records.
Spiritual Awakening (1997) is dedicated to the composer's loving mom and dad. The piece reflects back on her parents' strong religious training and the biblical scripture from Psalm 33:3. Sax Heaven - Ask and it shall be given you; Chant - Seek and ye shall find; Eternity - Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. The piece calls for three electronic MIDI keyboards and a synthesizer, each with its own character of sound patches. One central keyboard serves as the MIDI controller, interfacing with the other keyboards to trigger one or multiple sounds.
Sweet Memories (2000) was especially written for the Lettie Alston and Friends Concert, entitled Three Generations of Composers, and as part of the Detroit 300 Celebration. The work is dedicated to Dr. James Hartway, the composer's mentor and friend for 30 years. His exceptional teachings, personal encouragement and professional support as a colleague today have helped in sustaining Lettie as a composer, pianist and educator. In writing this composition, the composer reflects back on a human figure from her college life that was always warm in spirit, patience and understanding. The piece is written for two pianos, but the second piano part is performed on two electronic keyboards and two synthesizers to take on more colorful sonorities from the electronic medium used in the 21th Century. Written in two movements, the first, Prelude to the Urban City projects traditional thematic and formal design of the 18th Century, superimposing the rhythmic and harmonic complexities of the 20th Century. The second movement presents the fugal canonic style of the 17th-Century, consolidating electronic effects with the Black-American piano blues or boogie-woogie line.
Diverse Imagery (1995) was composed for the first Lettie Alston and Friends Faculty Concert called The Diverse Composer on January 29, 1995. The work was written for two electronic keyboards and sequencer in joint collaboration using dance to enhance the imagery expressed in the music. The piece divides itself into four mood-evoking sections.
Echoes of the Spirit (2000) is dedicated to the composer's aunt, Mary Harris for always reminding the composer to follow her first mind, that quiet inner voice. This work parallels the modal influences of primitive times and creates a Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque sacred composition. Written in two large sections, there is a subject, first presented in imitative style, then superimposed with changing meter. The piece is written for two pianos, but through five electronic sound sources, there are evoked echo effects, which convey the true mystical emotions of the composer's inner spirit. Cedric Alston and Roderic Leon on the Lettie Alston and Friends in the Community Concert premiered the piece at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Michigan.
Daylight (2000) represents an opening cycle, as in the birth of a newborn baby. Lettie and Cedric Alston at the Lettie Alston and Friends in the Community Concert premiered the piece on October 28, 2000 at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The composer reflecting back on her 18-year marriage relationship, which has continued to blossom and grow as with her offspring Darnell inspired the work. The work is dedicated with much love and devotion to Cedric and Darnell Alston, the composer's loving husband and son.
Storm Chaser is a programmatic composition and was adapted from the composer's orchestral work, “The Eleventh Hour”. The original work was written about the time of Hurricane Andrew, and was completed in 1992. The appearance of a rushing wind out of nowhere disrupting the lives of many affected the composer tremendously. Witnessing a natural act of God such as this, Storm Chaser, rekindles thoughts of all the storms, which have threatened human existence for the past seven years. As a storm rushes through with no warning, the music simulates the storm and attempts to move through its many unknown stages. The destructive peak of the storm is reached at the entrance of the piano with a bombastic rhythmic, bi-chordal climax, and then subsides. The work is written for two pianos. The second piano part is presented as an orchestral reduction indicating instrumental sounds to be used on electronic keyboards. Two MIDI keyboards and a synthesizer are used with a keyboard controller for combining sonorities and colorful effects.
The End Times (1998) is an electronic work for MIDI controller, three electronic keyboards and synthesizer. The pianist plays a touch sensitive keyboard controller and triggers various electronic sounds and pre-sets from the sound modules. Through the use of the MIDI keyboard controller the other keyboard sounds are combined to produce dense sonorities and colorful effects. This work is dedicated to my loving, supportive husband who inspired me to write this.
Music Publisher Information: Vivace Press: P.O. Box 842, Stevens Point, WI 54481 (715-343-5844) and Lettie Alston and Friends: P.O. Box 806, Troy, MI 48099-0806 (248-267-1287). All rights for public performance, including broadcasting and television rights are controlled by BROADCAST MUSIC. INC. (ASCAP).
I would first like to thank Cedric and Darnell, my wonderful husband and son for their love and encouragement in everything I attempt. To my mom, dad, mother-in-law and father-in-law; plus other family members who are always praying for me and blessing me with encouraging thoughts, I love and appreciate you all. And to my good friends Roderic Leon and Karen Walwyn.
In respect to this CD project, I would like to give an added special thanks to my talented and most creative husband, Cedric Darnell Alston. His patience, commitment, everlasting support and strength were greatly appreciated. I could not have accomplished this important CD project without him. I love you so much, Cedric and thank God for bringing you into my life. Further acknowledgedment is due to my fabulous colleague and friend Flavio Varani for his awesome piano performances of my music, piano coaching, musical interpretations, recording guidance and dedication to this project. I think fondly of you and love you for your genuinely fun, creative and warm spirit.
Executive Producer: Lettie Beckon Alston
Production Assistant: Cedric Darnell Alston
Recording Engineer: Will Spencer
Color Photo Prints: Bruce Szopo
Black and White Photo Prints: Dennis Collins, Rick Smith and Dirk Bakkar
Recorded on November 8-11, 2000 at the Solid Sound Inc. Studio in Ann Arbor, MI.
This recording of keyboard works was funded in part by the Oakland University's Research Fellowship Grant. Other funding was provided by Cedric Darnell Alston and the Lettie Alston and Friends in the Community premiere sponsor, Bach Technologies, Inc.
Disc 1: Solo Acoustical Piano Works
1 The Journey:The Longest Mile [8:15]
2 Playfully [1:44] • 3 Mysteriously [2:43]
4 Gloomy [2:27] • 5 Joyfully [1:19]
Three Rhapsodies for Piano
6 Etude [2:05] • 7 Nocturne [3:37]
9 The Morning's Glory [6:22] • 10 Afternoon Circles [3:58]
11 Rumble in the Night [3:23]
12 Piano Variations on “Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing” [5:35]
13 Keyboard Maniac (Rhapsody No. 4) [4:19]
Disc 2: Electronic Keyboard Works
1 Sax Heaven [2:34] • 2 Chant [2:44] • 3 Eternity [6:35]
Lettie B. Alston, electronic keyboards
4 Prelude to “The Urban City” [4:55]
Flavio Varani, piano • Cedric D. Alston, synthesizer
Lettie B. Alston, electronic keyboards
6 Sea Storm [2:24] • 7 Nebulae [2:24]
8 Super Voice [2:29] • 9 Hit the Dust [2:34]
Lettie B. Alston, electronic keyboards
10 Echoes from the Spirit [6:51]
Cedric D. Alston &Roderic S. Leon, electronic keyboards
Lettie B. Alston, electronic keyboards
Cedric D. Alston, synthesizer
Flavio Varani, piano • Lettie B. Alston, electronic keyboards
13 Warning [5:09] • 14 Eruption [4:40] • 15 The Red Sun [3:53]
Lettie B. Alston, electronic keyboards
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