The African Diaspora Music Project was founded as a research tool to help singers find art songs for performance and The George Shirley Vocal Competition. It was released in its vocal format with nearly 4,000 titles in 2019. In 2021, we released a new version that added more than 1,000 orchestral scores in a format usable by conductors and players. Our latest iteration that includes recordings, perusal scores, instrumental and chamber music, and curated lists by trusted orchestral conductors was released in 2022. We have expanded our team to some of the top professionals in each area of expertise. We hear comments from those of you in the field and we continue to grow and become even better as we hear ways that we can assist you. Thank you for using the African Diaspora Music Project and let us hear from you!
Vision
- To create a repository for the concert works (those intended for the concert stage; aka classical works) of composers of the African Diaspora. (The African Diaspora in this context is defined as those composers throughout the world descended from people of West and Central Africa).
- To provide access to scores, recordings, and programmatic information about these composers and their extant works for students, teachers, professionals and presenters.
- To encourage the research, exploration and performance of these works.
- To assist students who wish to enter the George Shirley African American Art Song and Operatic Aria Competition with appropriate repertoire choices.
Mission
To create a repository of music To provide access to scores To encourage research, exploration and performance of new works To assist student competitors
- To create a repository of music
- To provide access to scores
- To encourage research, exploration and performance of new works
- To assist student competitors
Thank you to our supporters and individual donors for the following awards and grants!
- 2000-2010 Research assistants provided by East Carolina University
- 2014-2017 Research funds provided by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- 2016 recipient of the Dena Epstein Award from the National Library Association
- 2020 faculty research funds from the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Michigan
- 2021 National Center for Institutional Diversity Grant from the University of Michigan
- 2022 Researching, Catalyzing, Innovating (RCI) grant from the School of Music, Theatre and Dance at the University of Michigan