This talk will focus on the scholarly and performance work of Dr. Louise Toppin to unearth forgotten composers like Undine Smith Moore, Margaret Bonds, Julia Perry, Valerie Capers, Irene Britton Smith, Florence Price, and Regina Baiocchi, as well as her efforts to position them in their rightful place in our musical canon.

Biography

Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, oratorio and recital performances world-wide. She has recorded more than eighteen commercial CDs and since 2021 has published 12 anthologies including An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs…Recent performances with Julia Bullock and the New World Symphony, sang festival of Black Music in Hamburg, Germany with Thomas Hampson and Larry Brownlee, performance at the U.S. Capitol for Congress and President Obama, and for the opening of the Smithsonian’s African American Heritage Museum. She appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered; co-hosted the Minnesota Orchestra “Listening Project”concerts, and hosts her show Conversations in African American music. She is Director of the George Shirley Vocal Competition, Videmus, Inc. and founder of the Africandiasporamusicproject.org research tool. Toppin was the Distinguished University Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is currently University Distinguished Professor of Diversity and Social Transformation and Professor of Voice, at The University of Michigan. For more, visit www.louisetoppin.com.