American composer Carlos Simon was born in 1986 in Washington, DC. The son of a preacher, he was raised on a mix of the improvisatory nature of Gospel Music and the more formal structural elements found in Classical music. His formal musical studies were pursued at Morehouse College, Georgia State University, and the University of Michigan. Among his teachers at Michigan were Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. As a music educator, Simon has served on the music faculties at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He currently serves as Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. In 2021 the Sphinx Organization awarded him the Medal of Excellence, and he has been Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Simon was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his album, Requiem for the Enslaved. Four Black American Dances, was composed in 2022 on commission from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra that gave the work its first performance with its music director, Andris Nelsons conducting. Since its premiere, it has been performed widely throughout the United States. The work is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones and bass trombone, tuba, timpani, percussion (xylophone, vibraphone, marimba, tubular bells, cymbals, suspended cymbal, splash cymbal, tam-tam, tambourine, triangle, wood blocks, shaker, 2 whips, large wood stick on a wooden floorboard, tom-toms, 2 snare drums, bass drum, hand claps), harp, and strings.

The composer’s program notes for Four Black American Dances follow:

Dance has always been a part of any culture. Particularly in Black American communities, dance is and has been the fabric of social gatherings. There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of dances created over the span of American history that have originated from the social climate of American slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow. This piece is an orchestral study of the music that is associated with the Ring Shout, the Waltz, Tap Dance, and the Holy Dance. All of these dances are but a mere representation of the wide range of cultural and social differences within the Black American communities.

I. Ring Shout

A ring shout is an ecstatic, transcendent religious ritual, first practiced by enslaved Africans in the West Indies and the United States, in which worshipers move in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands. To evoke the celebratory nature of this dance, I have asked the percussionist to use a large stick on a wooden floor board paired with fast moving passages in the strings and woodwinds.

II. Waltz

Cotillion balls existed for “upper-class” families as they allowed aristocratic families to vie for better marriage prospects for their daughters. However, cotillion balls were segregated and expensive, and did not include Black Americans. Debutante balls finally appeared in Black social circles during the 1930s, in large part due to the efforts of Black sororities, fraternities, and the growing number of affluent Black Americans. The waltz was the dance of choice in these environments.

III. Tap!

Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. For this movement, I have emulated the sound of the tap with the side rim of the snare drum in the percussion section. The strings play in a very short, disconnected style alongside the brass drawing on jazz harmonies.

IV. Holy Dance

Protestant Christian denominations, such as the Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.I.C.), Pentecostal Assemblies of God, Apostolic, Holiness Church, among many others, are known for their exuberant outward expressions of worship. The worship services in these churches will often have joyous dancing, spontaneous shouting, and soulful singing. The music in these worship services is a vital vehicle in fostering a genuine spiritual experience for the congregation. This movement calls on the vibrant, celebratory character that still exist in many churches today. I have composed music that mimics the sound of a congregation “speaking in tongues” (murmuring in a unknown spiritual language) by asking the orchestra to play in a semi-improvised manner. Often referred to as a “praise break,” the music propels forward continuously with the trombone section at the helm. The section moves to a climactic ending with the plagal “Amen” cadence.

Reviews of the work in various newspapers and websites have praised Four Black American Dances as “colorful vignettes from African-American history” (NY Classical Review), “An action-packed and intricately detailed history lesson — and a testament to his talent as one

of the most dynamic composers going” (Washington Post), and “[a work that] feels like a gesture of reclamation” (Boston Globe).

Program Note by David B. Levy/Carlos Simon, ©2025