Meet William Henry Curry

Today we’d like to introduce you to William Henry Curry.  

Hi William, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am an African American male born the month after Brown vs. Board of Education. That one sentence helps to explain both the success and the difficulty of my journey. When I was born, in many states, interracial marriage was still illegal. Perhaps that fact requires some explanation during this era where so many young people are under-educated and so many of my white brothers and sisters are trying to ban Critical Race Theory despite the fact they can’t even DEFINE it. Here is the REASON: Millions of whites thought that Blacks were inherently inferior, and they did not want my “mongrel” blood mixing with their daughter’s superior “brand.” That is also the reason why I saw white and colored drinking fountains while in Virginia at the age of 10: Many whites did not want my “disgusting” black lips anywhere near their lily-white ones. NOTE: I was not born in 1865 or 1924; I was born in 1954, more than one hundred years after “emancipation,” a time when many Southern Blacks were STILL denied their right to vote for another ten years. If I had been born in 1944, it is unlikely that I could have a career as a public figure, in this case, a symphony orchestra conductor. Even so, one of the most famous arts managers of all time (one of his clients was the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz) told me to my face in 1980: ” I can’t ‘sell’ a Black conductor.” The only reason why I. wasn’t destroyed by the glass ceiling was that I was too gifted, and I loved great music too much to quit. The victory is mine. No one mentored me. I was not the beneficiary of affirmative action. No one helped me… except a few friends, the muse of Music and God. Eventually, with the Durham Symphony Orchestra, I became the first African American Music Director of a symphony orchestra in the South. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
CONDUCTOR, I made my conducting debut at age 15. I made my professional debut at age 21 when I was called on to conduct a performance of Beethoven’s 9th symphony on twelve hours’ notice. In 1988 I was the only unanimous 1st-Prize winner in the history of the Stokowski Conducting Competition. This llead to my Carnegie Hall debut a few months later. in 1992, my first CD was nominated for a Grammy. I’ve conducted some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as the major opera companies of New York, Chicago, and Houston… 

During my 48-year career, I have worked with composers such as Aaron Copland, John Williams, and Anthony Davis, instrumentalists such as Itzhak Perlman, Yuja Wand, and Leon Fleisher, and jazz and pop artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennet, and Benny Goodman. 

COMPOSER 

My most-often performed orchestral piece is “Eulogy for a Dream,” a work for orchestra and speaker using excerpts from the speeches of Martin Luther King. The legendary African American baritone William Warfield did the premiere with me of the revised version in 2002. I have received several commissions from the North Carolina Symphony. In 2022 I was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for my UNC-Chapel Hill commission, “Dark Testament.” 

AMERICAN MUSIC ADVOCATE 

From the beginning of my career, I have been a steadfast champion of American contemporary music. Since becoming Music Director of the Durham Symphony in 2009, I have programmed at least one piece by an American composer on every concert. We are the first American orchestra to do this for more than a few seasons. I am unique for a classical music conductor in that I have a deep love and respect for the best of American pop music, including works by Richard Rodgers, Duke Ellington, And Prince. 

WRITER 

In recent years, I have written over 80 articles for the Durham Symphony Orchestra website and for cvnc.org (an online classical review site ) 

in 2024, Indiana University Press is scheduled to publish my memoirs. 

What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is sharing my love for great music. In recent years, I have been saddened to see in America a decrease of the public’s interest in the best of classical music, jazz, and the pop music of the past. I take my Credo from this excerpt from a poem by the 20th-century German composer Paul Hindemith: 

The old is not good, just because it has passed 

Nor is the new great because we live in it 

Your task it is, amidst confusion, rush, and noise 

To grasp the lasting, calm, and meaningful 

And finding it anew to hold and treasure 

Paul Hindemith from his Sonata for Alto Horn and Piano. 

Contact Info:

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