CRENSHAW : ‘Whole New World’ of Chamber Music

Although violinist Valencia Miller holds two academic degrees in music, she said her most profound education on the topic came outside the classroom.

“When I joined the Afro-American Chamber Music Society, I was suddenly exposed to composers I never knew about,” said Miller, a librarian at Cerritos College and violin instructor. “I only studied the European masters. This opened up a whole new world.”

Founded eight years ago by pianist Janise White-McRae, the nonprofit society devotes itself exclusively to performing classical and other works by black composers. Though based in the Crenshaw area, the 20-piece orchestra takes its program to schools throughout the county, and has regular concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the California Afro-American Museum.

Today, the group will perform a Mother’s Day concert at Kinsey Auditorium at the California Afro-American Museum.

White-McRae, 38, said she had thought about forming such a group since being introduced to black composers as a teen-ager through the Oakland-based National Assn. of Negro Musicians.

“I realized that good music is colorless,” said White-McRae, a music instructor at Los Angeles Southwest College. “Each composer was influenced by the events of their time. The music of (composer) Chevalier St. George is every bit as good as his contemporary Mozart’s, if you sit down and listen.”

The society survives on grants from public and private groups such as the city Cultural Affairs Commission, the California Arts Council and the Arco Foundation.

Begun as a quintet, the society now boasts 20 instruments, including piano, strings, woodwinds, French horn, bassoon and clarinet. Its repertoire features operas, suites and other works by an array of composers including Jose Mauricio Nunez Garcia, a Brazilian contemporary of Beethoven; African-born slave Ignatius Sancho; English violinist and pianist Samuel Coleridge Taylor; and contemporary composer George Wallker.