OBJECTIVE: Heighten awareness of historically significant, but little known, symphonic, chamber, and vocal music -including operas.
No. 3
Whatever the gatekeepers standard of evaluation or determination to program classical music and operas by American composers on radio, symphony and opera stages, the voluminous contributions of Ulysses Simpson Kay offer only two reasons for his omission. One reason is the lack of education or awareness and the other reason is less flattering. Please see detailed bio of Ulysses Kay https://
Dr. Kay’s composition MARKINGS (Symphony Essay-A Tribute to Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961) may be found on CBS Black Composers’ Series. In 1953 Dag Hammarskjold was elected Attorney General of the United Nations. In 1961, he was killed when his plane crashed in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on a peace mission to the Congo. The United States and the Soviet Union were involved in an intense nuclear race. The Soviet Union opposed Dag Hammarskjold leadership. Hammarskjold posthumously received the Nobel Peace Price in 1961. Dag Hammarskjold kept a diary, which came into print in the 1960’s with the title “Markings”. See https://www.youtube.com/
