Musical aim is for ‘Black people to live’
the Academy of Universal Arts & Music.
While making his way in the classical realm, Myers did not leave behind popular styles. “For me now, they’re not separate. I’ve avoided any conscious efforts to integrate African-american vernacular with concert music if it didn’t feel intuitive. You can’t force it,” he says.
Every day something has tried to kill us and failed. So what does it mean to be Black and alive? I don’t want ‘black and alive’ to be incongruous. I want Black people to live.”
— Andre Myers
Myers describes his new piece for the ASO as a blend of Stravinsky, Bang on a Can and
James Brown. Unlike “Good Fred,” there’s no rapping. In the honorable tradition of orchestral music, the composer is relying on the music itself to communicate any message or sentiment.
“I take a lot of solace and strength from Stravinsky’s neoclassical period. This piece is partly influenced by that period and the boxy-ness of it,” says Myers. “I feel like a lot of composers of the 1800s and 1900s lived in the shadow of Beethoven. A lot of my music is in the shadow of Stravinsky, also Armstrong, Monk, and Ellington.”
In Myers’ growing list of works, there aren’t any titles that ring out the theme of race in the way that “Black and
Alive” does. Yet Myers insists that social struggles are always there in his scores.
“I feel absolutely compelled by issues of political agency,” he says. “This is what I know how to do. I don’t know if writing classical music is going to be a real part in our global struggle. But it is at the forefront of every musical choice and influences every decision I make.”
Asked to consider how he would like the current musical scene in America to be remembered in 20 years, Myers replied, “Music in 2020 was the canary in the coal mine. It was the time when we began to reckon with the global condition. I want folks looking back to say that composers pursued the urgent nature of where we are. I’m going to be alive for that.”