THE PIANO MUSIC OF
ARTHUR CUNNINGHAM

John Ellis, Piano

Arthur Cunningham was an eclectic composer, trained from childhood in both jazz and classical music. His early studies were at the Metropolitan Music School in New York City, studying classical composition with the school's director, Wallingford Riegger and jazz piano with Teddy Wilson and John Mehegan. He went on to study at Fisk University, an historic all-Black school in Nashville, Tennessee. His education there was made possible by a fund set up by a group including Kurt Weill, Langston Hughes, Irving Berlin, and Richard Rodgers. He studied further at The Juilliard School with Peter Mennin, Norman Lloyd, and Henry Brant. He earned a Masters Degree from Columbia Teachers College where he received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992. His work as a composer took flight in 1968 after a commission from Benjamin Steinberg and the Symphony of the New World. The piece he produced was the dissonant and rhythmically complex Concentrics for orchestra, and was given its premiere at Philharmonic Hall in Lincoln Center, NYC in February 1969. His most prolific period followed with works such as Engrams, Harlem Suite, Night Song, Eclatette for solo 'cello or double bass, The Walton Statement for double bass and orchestra, and many other choral and instrumental pieces. His compositional activities and jazz performing continued until his death. His work with cabaret artist, Kate Davidson (whom he would later marry) was a central creative activity in the last decade of his life. Further evidence of Cunningham's wideranging activities was his work as music coordinator and narrator for the 1989 PBS documentary, The Exiles. He died after a long struggle with cancer in 1997, only a month after a concert in his honor produced by the Rockland Community College African- American History Month Committee.

John Ellis has performed internationally in solo recitals, collaborative roles, and lecture/recital formats. He is Director of Graduate Studies in Piano Pedagogy at the University of Michigan where, in addition to being on the piano faculty, he serves as Director of the Piano Pedagogy Laboratory Program. Prior to assuming his post at the University of Michigan, he taught at the Manhattan School of Music for twelve years. John Ellis studied piano with Arthur Cunningham while in high school and then went on to study with Frank Iogha at the State University of New York at Potsdam, Michel Block at Indiana University, and Constance Keene at the Manhattan School of Music.