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William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Mother and Child
Composed: 1944
Premiered: Unknown
Duration: 7 minutes


American composer William Grant Still grew up in Arkansas, where he began taking violin lessons at age 15. He would soon teach himself how to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bass, cello and viola, and by the time he was 16, he graduated from high school as class valedictorian. Still later studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and took up private studies with French composer Edgard Varèse and the American composer George Whitefield Chadwick.

Mother and Child was originally the second movement of Still's 1943 work Suite for Violin and Piano, which he then expanded for full orchestra. It's one of almost 200 works that he wrote in his lifetime, and one that his daughter, Judith Anne Still, has said was one of her father's favourite compositions.

William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Mother and Child
Composed: 1944
Premiered: Unknown
Duration: 7 minutes


American composer William Grant Still grew up in Arkansas, where he began taking violin lessons at age 15. He would soon teach himself how to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bass, cello and viola, and by the time he was 16, he graduated from high school as class valedictorian. Still later studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and took up private studies with French composer Edgard Varèse and the American composer George Whitefield Chadwick.

Mother and Child was originally the second movement of Still's 1943 work Suite for Violin and Piano, which he then expanded for full orchestra. It's one of almost 200 works that he wrote in his lifetime, and one that his daughter, Judith Anne Still, has said was one of her father's favourite compositions.