Maestro William Henry Curry has been Director and Conductor of the Durham Symphony since 2009. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Curry began conducting and composing music at age 14. He has conducted more than 40 orchestras in the United States, Israel, Bangkok and Taiwan. He is also a composer whose work “Eulogy for a Dream” was broadcast nationally in 2000 on the National Public Radio program “Performance Today.” Maestro Curry is the only African American symphony conductor in the South.

 

 

Songs of the South marks the fourth collaboration with the Hayti Heritage Center. The program features music by Scott Joplin, a tribute to Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, original works by poet Dasan Ahanu and Maestro Curry, and an homage to African American cultural pioneers. For the first time Maestro Curry will conduct works by an African American female composer, Arkansas native Florence Price.