Althea Waites
{{Short description|American concert pianist (b. 1939)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Althea Waites
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1939}}
| occupation = Pianist, educator
| instrument = Piano
}}
Althea Waites (born 1939) is an American concert pianist. She has performed across the United States and internationally. She is currently a faculty member at California State University, Long Beach.
Biography
Waites was born in 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana,{{Cite book|last=Caldwell|first=Hansonia LaVerne|title=African American Music: A Chronology: 1619-1995|publisher=Ikoro Communications|year=1995|isbn=0-9650441-0-6|edition= First|location=Los Angeles|pages=184|oclc=35851372}} to a musical family; her father and grandfather played the piano, and her mother sang in the church choir.{{Cite news|last=Cooklis|first=Ray|date=1982-03-26|title=A life that's set to music|pages=11|work=The San Bernardino County Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54870333/a-life-thats-set-to-music/|access-date=2020-07-07}} She began studying piano at age five. She made her debut with the New Orleans Philharmonic at age 17.
Waites studied music at Xavier University in New Orleans and went on to earn a master's degree in piano from Yale University.{{Cite book|title=Encyclopedia of African American music|date=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-34200-4|editor-last=Kernodle|editor-first=Tammy|location=Santa Barbara, Calif.|pages=664|chapter=New England|oclc=699474764|editor-last2=Mxille|editor-first2=Horace|editor-last3=Price|editor-first3=Emmett G. III}} She also studied with Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory. After graduating, Waites toured as a performer and taught at a number of East Coast institutions, including Smith College.
In the 1970s, she moved to the West Coast, teaching at California State University, San Bernardino, and the University of California, Riverside. She became a full-time faculty member at Cal State in 1979. In addition to instructing private and group piano lessons, she taught music theory and African-American music history. She later joined the faculty at California State Polytechnic, Pomona,{{Cite news|date=1989-11-08|title=American Music Week at Cal State|pages=57|work=The San Bernardino County Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54871094/american-music-week-at-cal-state/|access-date=2020-07-07}} where she was artist-in-residence.{{Cite news|date=1994-01-13|title=Waites' performance first of Dunn music series|pages=15|work=Santa Ynez Valley News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54871668/waites-performance-first-of-dunn-music/|access-date=2020-07-07}} For more than 20 years, she has taught at California State University, Long Beach.{{Cite web|last=Zonkel|first=Phillip|date=2015-04-07|title=CSU faculty union releases report detailing members' struggles to pay bills|url=https://www.presstelegram.com/social-affairs/20150407/csu-faculty-union-releases-report-detailing-members-struggles-to-pay-bills|access-date=2020-07-07|website=Press Telegram|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Althea Waites|url=https://web.csulb.edu/depts/music/areas/keyboard-studies/althea-waites.php|access-date=2020-07-07|website=Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, California State University, Long Beach}}
Waites has said that she has been on a "crusade" to perform music by Black women composers. In 1987, she made her recording debut with an album of piano works by Florence Price.{{Cite journal|last=de Lerma|first=Dominique-René|date=1988|title=Music Review: Althea Waites Performs the Piano Music of Florence Price|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|volume=16|issue=1|pages=117|doi=10.2307/1215135|jstor=1215135}} She was the first pianist to make a recording of Price's music.{{Cite web|last=Smittle|first=Stephanie|date=2019-10-15|title=On Florence Price and William Grant Still: Five Questions with Linda Holzer|url=https://arktimes.com/rock-candy/2019/10/15/on-florence-price-and-william-grant-still-five-questions-with-linda-holzer|access-date=2020-07-07|website=Arkansas Times|language=en-US}} A review in the academic journal The Black Perspective in Music highlighted the album's significance as a record of an important figure (Price) in American music history.
Waites has performed across the United States and in Canada, Europe, and Latin America. In 1989, Waites toured the then-Soviet Union, performing in Moscow, Kiev, and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).{{Cite news|date=1989-05-24|title=Renowned pianist to play|pages=17|work=Palm Desert Post|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54871470/renowned-pianist-to-play/|access-date=2020-07-07}}
In 1993, she released the album Black Diamonds, on which she performed works by African-American composers, including Price, William Grant Still, Margaret Bonds, and Ed Bland.{{Cite news|last=Miller|first=Karl|date=1993|title=Black Diamonds|volume=56|work=American Music Guide|issue=6}} Her Grammy-nominated 2023 album, Reflections in Time,https://www.sonicrendezvous.com/product/waites-althea/reflections-in-time/590418 continues her project of (in her words) "mainstreaming" new music and the music of composers of color, presenting world-premiere recordings of music by Margaret Bonds,Margaret Bonds{{Circular reference|date=May 2024}} Jeremy Siskind,https://jeremysiskind.com/ and Curt Cacioppohttps://curtcacioppo.com/ along with three of the "Three-Fours" of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.Samuel Coleridge-Taylor{{Circular reference|date=May 2024}}
Critical reception
A 1980 review in The San Bernardino County Sun described Waites as a "good technician" and "an excellent performer" who "projects a sense of informality, of conversing with her listeners intimately with her music."{{Cite news|last=Cooklis|first=Ray|date=1980-02-22|title=Wet weather, warm music|pages=56|work=The San Bernardino County Sun|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54870131/wet-weather-warm-music/|access-date=2020-07-07}} For a 1986 performance of Florence Price's Sonata in E Minor, the Los Angeles Times praised her "technical assurance and probing artistry."{{Cite news|last=Henken|first=John|date=1986-01-27|title=More in festival|pages=76|work=The Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54873786/women-composers-featured-in-northridge/|access-date=2020-07-07}}
The American Music Guide highlighted her performance of Price's music on her 1993 album, Black Diamonds, observing that she plays "with great respect and dignity, making the listener aware of the quality of the music and its expressive content."
Selected recordings
References
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Category:Musicians from New Orleans
Category:20th-century American pianists
Category:21st-century American pianists
Category:African-American pianists
Category:Xavier University of Louisiana alumni
Category:Yale School of Music alumni
Category:California State University, Long Beach faculty
Category:20th-century American women pianists
Category:21st-century American women pianists
Category:African-American women musicians
Category:20th-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American musicians