Synopsis
Long before Beyoncé, there was Josephine Baker.
She was born Freda Josephine McDonald on today’s date in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. At 15, she talked her way into the chorus line at a local vaudeville theater; from there headed first to New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, and then on Paris and the Folies Bergère, where as a singer and dancer she quickly became a sensation.
By that time, Freda Josephine McDonald had reinvented herself as Josephine Baker. She was for Parisians the embodiment of the Jazz Age, the “Black Venus,” and the hippest American on the planet.
She became a naturalized French citizen, married a wealthy French industrialist, and raised her 12 adopted children in France. In one of her most famous songs, she sang, “I have two loves, my country and Paris,” and proved as good as her word when during World War II she aided the French resistance. As she refused to perform for segregated audiences in America, she chose to remain in Europe.
American composer Valerie Coleman attempted to capture something of the many facets of this remarkable woman and her journey from St. Louis to Paris in her wind quintet, Portraits of Josephine.
Music Played in Today's Program
Valerie Coleman (b. 1970): Thank You Josephine (J’ai Deux Amours), from Portraits of Josephine; Imani Winds; Koch KIC-7696
On This Day
Births
1801 - Czech opera composer Franz (František) Škroup, in Osice. One of his songs was eventually used as the Czech national anthem.
1832 - French operetta composer Charles Lecocq, in Paris
Deaths
1875 - French composer Georges Bizet, 36, at Bougival (near Paris)
1899 - Austrian composer Johann Strauss, Jr., 73, in Vienna
1939 - Spanish composer and conductor Enrique Fernandez Arbos, 76, in San Sebastian
Premieres
1896 - Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5, in Paris, with the composer as soloist
1915 - Chadwick: symphonic ballad Tam O’Shanter at the Norfolk Festival
1922 - Stravinsky: opera Mavra, at the Paris Opéra
1947 - Poulenc: opera Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias) in Paris at the Opéra-Comique
1964 - Menotti: Martin's Lie, at Bristol Cathedral in Bath, England
1979 - Menotti: La Loca, in San Diego, California
1988 - Michael Torke: Copper for brass quintet and orchestra, at the Midland (Michigan) Festival, with the Empire Brass and the Detroit Symphony conducted by Stephen Stein
1999 - Tan Dun: Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra (In Memory of Toru Takemitsu), at Lincoln Center, with percussionist Christopher Lamb and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
