Piano Music by African-American Composers
Liner Notes   Cat. No. NWCR629     Release Date: 2007-01-01
Natalie Hinderas, piano

Natalie Hinderas was born in 1927 in Oberlin, Ohio. Though her great-grandparents were slaves, her grandparents were successful entrepreneurs, in the hotel and restaurant business. Their daughter Leota Palmer, Natalie’s mother, received the finest education a middle-class Black woman could at the time and went on to serve on the piano faculties of the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory. Musicians who came to Oberlin were frequent guests in the family home. It was there that Natalie began piano studies at age six with her mother and also first met composer R. Nathaniel Dett. At age eight, she entered Oberlin as a special student and that same year appeared in her first solo piano recital. She made her debut with orchestra, at age twelve, with the Cleveland Women’s Symphony in the Grieg Piano Concerto. Composer George Walker, whose music Natalie would later champion, was a teenage member of that audience. Following her graduation at Oberlin in 1945, she continued her studies at the Juilliard School of Music with Olga Samaroff and at the Philadelphia Conservatory with Edward Steuermann. Also while at Juilliard, she studied composition with Vincent Perschetti.

It was through concerts at American colleges and universities beginning in 1968 that Hinderas became widely associated with music of African-American composers. Artist manager Joanne Rile, a long-time friend of the late pianist, states that Hinderas gave these types of programs: all traditional repertoire; a combination of traditional repertoire in the first half with music by Americans including works by Black composers after intermission; and all music by Black composers. Hinderas, with her mother, who also advised her on programming, and Rile gave considerable attention to what terminology should be used in billing the concerts. They settled finally on using the term “Black,” though as Rile recalls, “Black was beautiful but it was still revolutionary to say so.”


This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.

Natalie Hinderas

Piano Music by African-American Composers

MP3/320 $9.99
FLAC $9.99
WAV $9.99
2xCD-R $19.98
CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print material or jewel case included.
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
   Liner Notes



In the bottoms: I. Prelude
R. Nathaniel Dett
Buy
In the bottoms: II. His Song
R. Nathaniel Dett
Buy
In the bottoms: III. Honey
R. Nathaniel Dett
Buy
In the bottoms: IV. Barcarolle
R. Nathaniel Dett
Buy
In the bottoms: V. Dance
R. Nathaniel Dett
Buy
Easter Monday Swagger, Scherzino
Thomas Kerr
Buy
Three Visions: I. Dark Horseman
William Grant Still
Buy
Three Visions: II. Summerland
William Grant Still
Buy
Three Visions: III. Radiant Pinnacle
William Grant Still
Buy
Scuppernong: I. At a Certain Church
John Wesley Work III
Buy
Scuppernong: II. Ring Game
John Wesley Work III
Buy
Scuppernong: III. Visitor from Town
John Wesley Work III
Buy
Sonata No. 1: I. Allegro Energico
George Walker
Buy
Sonata No. 1: II. Theme & Variations
George Walker
Buy
Sonata No. 1: III. Allegro Con Brio
George Walker
Buy
Engrams'
Arthur Cunningham
Buy
Sound-gone
Talib Rasul Hakim
Buy
Evocation
Hale Smith
Buy
Piano Piece for piano and electronic sound
Olly Wilson
Buy