For a while in the 1950s and ‘60s, Julia Perry came very close to breaking both the color and the gender barriers and establish herself as a prominent composer on the American scene. Born in Lexington and raised in Akron, Perry came from an educated middle-class Black family, received excellent training at Westminster Choir College and at Tanglewood, and lived in Europe for five years. She counted luminaries like Luigi Dallapiccola and Nadia Boulanger among her mentors and was an accomplished singer, violinist, pianist, and conductor. Her Stabat Mater for mezzo-soprano and string orchestra, which she often sang in concert, was a major success. Yet ultimately, she was unable to completely overcome prejudice. Paralyzed by a series of strokes, she spent her last years in a wheelchair and while she continued to compose to the end of her life, her new works did not get performed. Her music was forgotten for decades and only started to be rediscovered recently.

A high point in Perry’s professional life was the performance of her Study for Orchestra by the New York Philharmonic, under William Steinberg’s direction, in 1965. This work was previously titled Piece for Orchestra or Short Piece for Orchestra; it had been performed in a version for chamber orchestra by the Turin Symphony Orchestra in Italy under Dean Dixon in 1952 and, in an expanded orchestration, by the Little Orchestra Society under Thomas Scherman in 1955. It was at Steinberg’s request that Perry changed the title from Short Piece to Study. As the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony (later also of the Boston Symphony), Steinberg was a high-profile maestro whose support could have meant a great deal, but apparently there was little follow-up.

One commentator on Julia Perry’s music places it “in the neo-classical tradition, with rich, dissonant harmonies, and an intense lyricism along with rhythmic complexities.” This assessment finds a perfect illustration in the seven-minute Study for Orchestra, in which a dynamic opening theme is contrasted, rondo-like, with three lyrical episodes. An abbreviated version of the opening theme serves as the vigorous conclusion.

Notes By Peter Laki