PRI and CLASSICALLY BLACK present"The Creole Romantics"

Classically Black is proud to present three African American composers whose stories begin in 19th-century New Orleans — Charles Lucien Lambert Sr., Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert Jr., and Edmond Dede.

For blacks in post-Civil War America, any serious involvement in classical music was problematic to say the very least. It's not surprising, then, that Lambert Sr. and Dede went abroad in search of less restrictive environments to pursue their muses.

"The Creole Romantics" provides a generous sampling of their artistry, a delightful cross-cultural blending of western European concert music with ragtime and jazz. It is music notable for its catchy rhythms, ornamentations, and variations. Other composers whose lives were touched by these gentlemen were Ernesto Nazareth, Heitor Villa-Lobos and possibly Darius Milhaud.

Social mores notwithstanding, Lambert, Lambert, and Dede triumphed, emerging as world-class artists who inspired others to follow them.