Considered the “Dean of African American Composers,” Still was the first successful black composer in this country.  He was born in Mississippi, but when his father died when he was three, his mother moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to teach high school English.  Still’s mother remarried and his stepfather piqued Still’s musical interests by taking him to live performances as well as buying records to play at home.  Still took lessons on violin but taught himself to play multiple other instruments.  Still attended Wilberforce College in Ohio to pursue a science degree, but he also participated in numerous music ensembles.  He never completed his degree and used some of this father’s estate money to attend Oberlin Conservatory of Music and studied composition privately with the American composer George Whitefield Chadwick.  Before and after World War I, Still performed with W.C. Handy’s band, and during the war served in the navy.  His life was filled with many “firsts.”  He was the first black man to conduct a major orchestra, and his opera Troubled Island was the first opera by an American staged by the New York City Opera.  His first symphony, entitled “Afro-American” was the first symphony composed by a black man that was premiered by a major orchestra.  Until 1950 it was the most popular symphony by any American. 

Danzas de Panama for String Quartet is a work from 1948 and is a set of dances based on Panamanian folk tunes.  “Cumbia Y Congo” is the last movement and incorporates lively Latin dances with African rhythms and a rhythmic pattern clapped into the body of the instruments.