Shattering stereotypes with every note
Consider William Leathers and Rashaan Allwood — young Black men whose prodigious musical talents propel you to stand up and cheer, and forget the stereotypes.
On Saturday night, the two Torontoarea residents will bring their astonishing brilliance to the Aga Khan Museum stage, as part of the Black History Month series co-sponsored by TD Bank and Joy Bullen, who takes particular joy in presenting Black talent of unsurpassed quality.
Six years ago, the Star interviewed Allwood, now 23, when he earned an unprecedented perfect score on a one-hour piano performance exam with the Royal Conservatory of Toronto.
Last year, another prodigy popped into our consciousness when Leathers, 18, became one of just three trumpeters to be accepted to the elite undergraduate music program at the legendary Juilliard School of Music in New York. When people heard the youth needed $91,000 a year to accept the offer, they quickly covered his firstyear cost, via crowdfunding.
Now you can hear and see both young phenoms in another Black History Month treat, with Leathers being the headliner.
Hip hop, reggae, R&B, soul, gospel, jazz and their many variations are readily available at many Black History Month events. But these two stars, and a growing constellation of Black performers, more than we recognize, are shattering stereotypes with every note they strike or blow.
This is not to suggest Black folk are not intertwined in the history of classical music. The kids I grew up with were mimicking Paul Robeson, Louis Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Kathleen Battle and singing Harry Burleigh compositions. Wynton Marsalis transcends multiple genres.
Right now in Toronto, the incomparable Jessye Norman is being feted as the 12th Glenn Gould Prize laureate, delivering a speech at TIFF Lightbox, a master class at the University of Toronto and a concert planed for Wednesday at the Four Seasons Centre.
But in staging performances each Black History Month, Bullen aims to make this music accessible to a wider audience. One year, she had Andrew Forde at Koerner Hall, breaking down the classics with a hip-hop and spoken word bent. One year, she had Eddie Bullen and son Quincy on duelling pianos. This year, she is looking to the future.
I could tell you about the practice regimen of these young men, how Leathers sees eight-hour practice days as the norm, his career aspiration to perform around the globe, his maturity, his published gratitude to the many people who donated to his crowdfunding, his promise to “make you proud” and his pledge to give any excess money raised to a foundation to help other youth pay for expensively prestigious education.
But read this from an interview with Lifelong Leadership Institute in 2016, in which he said the children TV cartoon character Oswald, the piano-playing octopus, is what inspired his passion for music.
“When I was about 4 years old … I wanted to play the piano just like Oswald. As I watched him play, I could see the colours of the notes coming out of the speakers. I wasn’t aware then that everybody did not see music in colour the way I do. Later, I learned that I had synesthesia … a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are known as synesthetes. There are 64-plus types of synesthesia; I have a number of them, but the one that gives me the ability to see music in colour is musical synesthesia.
“Some famous musical synesthetes are Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Billy Joel, Franz Liszt, Duke Ellington, Jean Sibelius and Nikolai RimskyKorsakov. After begging my parents for six months to allow me to play the piano, my mom finally found a piano teacher willing to take me in at such a young age. Five to six months after my first lesson, I entered the Peel Music Festival at the Grade 3 level and won.”
Allwood, meanwhile, says while he still loves the piano, he has “become enthralled by the pipe organ (which led me, amongst other things, back to religion). The organ is an instrument with the ability to play like an entire orchestra, or to lead hundreds of people in singing — which also led me to an interest in pursuing conducting.”
In the past 18 months, he’s played concerts in Leipzig, Germany; London, England; and Geneva, Switzerland; and continues to win music competitions.
Next month, he embarks on a six-concert, three-week tour of the U.K. In April, he premieres his first opera, Bright Bottles, in Houston.
Allwood’s dad is driven by a desire to present the young Black man as productive and inspiring. Rashaan has bottled some of the passion.
“Sometimes I feel we have an unfair advantage! Music goes so deeply into the roots of all Black heritage. Music, and the discipline, creative spirit and individuality it requires has never been a challenge for the Black community.
“As a composer of operas, (Black) inspiration is not hard to find. German composers like Richard Wagner and Alban Berg have presented us with some of the best repertoire for voice that exists — and perhaps the best recordings of this music that exists is found in none other than African-American singer extraordinaire, Jessye Norman.” He may meet Norman for the first time, Wednesday.
“The only Black woman to have lulled me to sleep, or inspired me in the morning so much is my own mother, Joyce Allwood.
“With my career, I hope to be able to help others, in the way that people likes Jessye Norman and Alban Berg have helped me. A source of inspiration, and of music.”
Any time you grow weary of the narrative around young Black men, remember William Leathers and Rashaan Allwood. And Allwood’s words:
“I think my community looks upon my achievements with pride. And young successful Black musicians, even organists, are not as rare as you might think — Alcee Chriss III, a Black organist and good friend of mine from Fort Worth, Texas, just won the Canadian International Organ Competition (2017). It is truly inspiring to see so many Black youth succeeding, even in the classical music world.”