Born in Chicago, Bonds studied with Florence Price and William Dawson. She received her Master’s Degree in Music from Northwestern in 1934. That same year, she became the first African American to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and was the soloist in the premiere of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in D Minor by the Woman’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago. She enjoyed a 40-year association with poet Langston Hughes.

After visiting Montgomery, Alabama in 1963, Bonds wrote Montgomery Variations as a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. Based on the spiritual “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me,” she called it “a group of freestyle variations…. The treatment suggests the manner in which Bach constructed his partitas--a bold statement of the theme, followed by variations of the theme in the same key—-major and minor.”

In her program note, Bonds described each of the variations:

“Decision

Under the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and SCLC [Southern Christian Leadership Conference], Negroes in Montgomery decided to boycott the bus company and to fight for their rights as citizens.

“March

The Spirit of the Nazarene marching with them, the Negroes of Montgomery walked to their work rather than be segregated on the buses. The entire world, symbolically with them, marches.

“Benediction

A benign God, Father and Mother to all people, pours forth Love to His children – the good and the bad alike.

“Lament

The world was shaken by the cruelty of the Sunday School bombing. Negroes, as usual, leaned on their Jesus to carry them through this crisis of grief and humiliation.”

~ Program Notes by Charley Samson, copyright 2023.