Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, known professionally as Shakira, was born in Colombia February 2, 1977, to a Colombian mother and a Lebanese father. Her musical talent was recognized from an early age as she soaked up musical influences from her Latin and Middle Eastern heritages as well as rock and roll sung in English. Her…
Indigo Girls
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers first met in elementary school in Decatur, Georgia, and began playing music together in high school. At that time they'd play amateur nights at local bars, calling themselves Saliers and Ray. For college, they moved to Atlanta to attend Emory University, where they changed their duo's name to Indigo Girls…
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, was born on Christmas Day in 1745 on the Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe. His father was the French plantation owner George de Bologne Saint‐Georges and his mother was the enslaved African woman known as Nanon. In 1748, the young Bologne's father went back to France and brought along not only…
Lil Nas X
Lil Nas X arrived on the music scene in December of 2018 with his country/hip-hop hit "Old Town Road." It stayed on the Billboard charts for 19 weeks straight and hit #1 on the Hot 100 on April 9, 2019. At the time Rolling Stone published their first article about him ("Desperado") in June of…
Natalie Curtis Burlin and Angel De Cora
Natalie Curtis Burlin, a white ethnomusicologist and composer from New York, and Angel De Cora, a Ho-Chunk artist from Nebraska, were two educated women who lived at the same time period and had a shared interest in the lives of Native Americans. Curtis Burlin was interested in preserving the music of different tribes as it existed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. De Cora was interested in depicting Native Americans as a people whose outward appearance changed as they gradually became assimilated into white culture. In 1907, Curtis Burlin's book, The Indians' Book, which included many illustrations and lettering by De Cora, was published.
James Reese Europe
James Reese Europe was a composer and bandleader of the early 20th century who helped move ragtime music into jazz and also assisted in the popularization of social dancing for all social classes.
Ancient Instruments
You may have wandered past this panel, a part of the Puvis de Chavannes murals on the second floor of the Central Library's McKim Building, many times and wondered about the instruments the Muses are carrying. What are they, anyway?
World’s Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival
When you think of a multi-day music festival, what comes to mind? Woodstock? Coachella? Newport Folk Festival? One hundred and fifty years ago, Boston hosted a music festival that lasted for 18 days! The World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival took place from June 17 through July 4, 1872, and was held in the Back Bay neighborhood in a Coliseum also known as the Peace Temple. It was created to honor the ending of the Franco-Prussian War.
Lone Fish-Ball
Learn the story behind "Lone Fish-Ball," a song by Harvard Professor George Martin Lane.
The Jubilee Singers
In 1866, the American Missionary Association (AMA) founded Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, to provide an education for freed enslaved Black people. In 1871, in order to raise money for the school, the White man who was the school's treasurer and music teacher formed a choral group of ten students to tour the northern United…
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