South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago’s Classical Music Scene

Chicago’s South Side has always been known for jazz and the blues. Still, in this latest entry in the University of Illinois Press “Music in American Life” series, readers learn that it was (and still is) part of the city’s vibrant classical music scene. Musicologist and pianist Ege’s first book documents the period between the World Wars when Black women led a community of composers, journalists, promoters, performers, and supporters that were an integral part of the Black Chicago Renaissance. Some of their names may be familiar to classical music fans, such as composers Florence Price and Margaret Bonds; others, including Maude Roberts George, Neota McCurdy Dyett, and Beulah Mitchell Hill, may not be as well known. All are represented in this excellent account of the intersection of culture and social activism. Note that the phrase “race women” in the title was historically used to describe middle- and upper-class Black women who did not perform manual labor.