INFEMNITY™ Arts and Culture News

  by Pedro Antonio Muñoz Helguera September 15, 2024 | Mexico City [Translated from Spanish] Today we are going to talk of the incredible concert that the American pianist Nina Kennedy gave in the Blas Galindo Auditorium at the National Center for the Arts here in Mexico City just yesterday, September 14. Her presentation was truly emotional, impeccable technique, and a selection of pieces that ranged from European Romanticism to American and Latin folklore. The recital was solo piano, which gave it an extremely intimate touch and allowed the audience to connect to the compositions. Kennedy played it all: there were pieces by Chopin, also Liszt, there was music from America as in John W. Work and R. Nathaniel Dett. There were also Latino composers such as Manuel de Falla and Ernesto Lecuona. To begin the concert with Ravel's  Valses Nobles et Sentimentales , she transported us to a world full of delicacy, the complexity of the waltzes under the hands of Kennedy who showed perf...

Join us as we pay homage to  American classical pianist, professor, choral director, composer, and arranger of Negro Spirituals Matthew Kennedy , who was born March 10, 1921 in Americus, Georgia. We will be posting links to his recordings, articles, and film clips as part of his 100th birthday celebration. As a young boy, Matthew Kennedy sat in the segregated audience for a live concert given by famed Russian pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. He decided to become a pianist himself after that concert. Soon afterwards, he and his mother traveled to New York City at apply for study at the Juilliard School, for which he won a scholarship as a result of imitating Rachmaninoff's playing style. After graduating from the Juilliard Preparatory Division, he entered Fisk University as a freshman and served as piano accompanist for the Fisk Jubilee Singers under then-director Mrs. James A. Myers. He traveled the world with the group performing several solo pieces on their programs, thu...

Anne Gamble Kennedy: 1920-2001   In Anticipation of Anne Gamble Kennedy's 100th Birthday Celebration/Virtual Exhibit Anne Gamble Kennedy began her career with faith, hope, and optimism. She was a black woman (albeit light-skinned), and endured the racism that was rampant in the American South during the first half of the twentieth century. Growing up in Charleston, West Virginia, she endured the humiliation of segregated schools, public accommodations and toilets. She eventually moved further south to study a Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941, she enrolled in the Conservatory at Oberlin College in Ohio where she earned a Bachelor of Music degree. Soon afterwards, she moved to New York City to study privately with famed pianist Ray Lev. Then she accepted teaching positions at Tuskegee Institute and Talladega College in Alabama, and began a successful concert career. She was invited to perform at several HBCUs throughout the sout...

Nina Kennedy outside of Carnegie Hall Early in January, we had seen on Facebook that the Harry T. Burleigh Society was presenting the Fisk Jubilee Singers  in concert at Carnegie Hall. April and I sat in the audience for the concert, and were delighted to hear the old plantation songs or "Spirituals," which I had heard throughout my childhood while my father was director. We were also delighted to see that the current group had included my father's arrangement of the spiritual "Steal Away" on the program. In her opening remarks, president and co-founder of the Harry T. Burleigh Society Lynne Foote  welcomed the audience and introduced the group. The works arranged by Burleigh  on the program included "My Lord, What a Mornin'," "Balm in Gilead," and "Heav'n, Heav'n." Spirituals arranged by John W. Work III , Hall Johnson , R. Nathaniel Dett , Moses Hogan ,  Undine Smith Moore , current director Paul Kwami , among ...

While writing my own article for Wikipedia, it dawned on me that it would be nice to be able to link to my parents’ pages from my own page. So I wrote pages for my father and mother; and since my mother’s father was a notable African-American surgeon, and one of the first black graduates of the Yale School of Medicine, I went ahead and wrote an article for him. Little did I know that I was setting myself up for frustrations that would dominate my week.

Since Wikipedia refuses to publish this article because they claim, "The subject's references do not adequately show the subject's notability," I am publishing it myself. I'd like to see any of those editors try to survive as a Black female in the American South during the 1940s and 50s. Anne Gamble's accomplishments are notable as HELL! Anne Gamble Kennedy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Anne Gamble Kennedy  (25 September 1920 – 11 June 2001) was an American classical  pianist , piano professor, and accompanist for the  Fisk Jubilee Singers  of  Nashville, Tennessee . Anne Gamble Kennedy Contents      1 Early life 2 Career 3 Selected discography 4 Notes Early life Anne Lucille Gamble was born in  Charleston, West Virginia  to Dr.  Henry Floyd Gamble  and the former Nina Hortense Clinton of Zanesville, Ohio. She was the younger of two children born to that union. She also had two o...