Alvin Singleton
*Alvin Singleton was born on this date in 1940. He is a Black composer.
Born and raised in New York City, he received his music education from New York University (B.A.) and Yale School of Music (M.M.). Singleton was a Fulbright Scholar in Rome, Italy, from 1971-1985.
After that, Singleton returned to the United States to become a Composer-in-Residence with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (1985-88). He served as Resident Composer at Spelman College in Atlanta (1988-91), as UNISYS Composer-in-Residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1996-97), and was the 2002–03 Composer-in-Residence with the Ritz Chamber Players of Jacksonville, Florida. In addition, he has served as Visiting Professor of Composition at the Yale University School of Music.
Singleton's music shows the evidence of a wide range of influences - "from Mahler to Monk, Bird to Bernstein, James Baldwin to Bach, Santana to Prince" - and often incorporates aspects of theatre and surprise. His set of eight Argoru pieces for various solo instruments, composed from 1968 to 2002, are trademark. He is a recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship. His choral ballet TRUTH (2006), scored for mixed chorus, dancers, and an ensemble of 10 instruments, is based on the life of abolitionist Sojourner Truth.
His piano concerto BluesKonzert debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2010 with soloist Ursula Oppens and the American Composers Orchestra. Albany Records has issued a series of recordings, including Extensions of a Dream (2002, percussion music), Sing to the Sun (2007, choral and chamber music), and Sweet Chariot (2014, solo and chamber music). The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus has recorded PraiseMaker. The Momenta Quartet has recorded the four string quartets.
