I have just published this small 44 page book about William Grant Still on amazon.com. He composed nearly 200 works throughout his career, including 5 symphonies, 9 operas, 4 ballets, art songs, choral and chamber music.  He is known for blending American genres like blues, jazz, and spirituals with classical elements.  His prolific output reflects his deep commitment to portraying the African American experience and advocating for racial equality in the arts.

To quote Claire Detels, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, “William Grant Still may be characterized as a far-seeing, progressive individual: a breaker of barriers against blacks as composers of serious concert music, a “trailblazer” in the development of a nationalistic American idiom for serious concert music, and a man of unusually broad vision of the purpose and potentialities of music for bridging the gaps between blacks and whites in this country, and indeed between people of all ethnic backgrounds all over the world.”

“This is the inspiring side of William Grant Still—the youth of 17 from the Deep South who dreamed, in spite of all signs of societal repression, that he would compose operas and symphonies…however, there is another side which is equally as important to an understanding of the composer and his works: William Grant Still the traditionalist.”

“As a human being, William Grant Still stood for, spoke for, and wrote about traditional values throughout his adult life—values such as patriotism, freedom, democracy, religious faith, family, and education.”