 |
Dr.
Lettie Beckon Alston Biography Works Discography Audio Examples Brochure (PDF format) |
BIOGRAPHY
Lettie Beckon Alston, born in Detroit, Michigan April 13, 1953 and now resides in Troy, Michigan. At the age of 15 she began piano lessons at the Bailey’s Temple School of Music, studying with Pearl Roberts McCullom. After graduating from Central High School, her parents encouraged her to attend Wayne State University. She received her bachelor and master degrees in Music Composition from WSU, studying composition with James Hartway and piano with Mischa Kottler. She also worked with Frank Murch and Wesley Fishwish on piano. Continuing her education, she was the first Black-American composer to obtain a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 1983, where she studied composition with Leslie Bassett and William Bolcom. Alston also worked with Eugene Kurzt and George Wilson in the electronic music area. Not having lost a passion for the piano, she continued piano study with Robert Hord and Benning Dexter.
Dr. Alston went on to teach part-time at Wayne State University in 1983, the Detroit Public School in 1986, Oakland University as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 1987 and Eastern Michigan University in 1988. Returning to Oakland University in 1991, she is now Associate Professor of Music in composition and theory. Dr. Alston has been artistic director of Lettie Alston and Friends, a Professional Artists’ Program since 1995.
The LAFriends concerts feature University Faculty and International Artists in the Performing Arts. The annual concerts focus on music by modern composers.
Dr. Alston’s works have been featured widely in eastern and mid-western states, Austria, England and broadcasted on radio in Brazil. Her talents as composer and pianist have been well received by diverse audiences. Alston has been featured as composer and pianist at the University of Cambridge, England in 2001, 2003 and 2005. She was invited as recitalist at the 1999 Second Symposium of Black Women Composers at Hampton University. Alston has received commissions from the Oakland University Community Chorus, the Great Lakes Men’s Chorus, the Lyric Chamber Ensemble and others. Her music score, The Eleventh Hour was performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a finalist composition in 1992 and Alston was the first female composer from Michigan to make the finals. Biblical Women was a selected semi-finalist composition in 1998 and Anxiety for Orchestra was performed as a finalist composition in 1999 (at the open reading session) for the National Unisys African-American Symposium Competitions. The Detroit Symphony and Unisys Corporation sponsored these events. Alston’s Four Moods for Piano and Three Rhapsodies for Piano were selected for New York premieres, 1994 and 1997 by the North/ South Consonance Ensemble. Her work Memories was premiered with II Trio della Musica, in Salzburg, Austria and her Four Short Pieces for Soprano and Piano was featured at the 1994 National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Alston has had many other performances in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Boston and Illinois.
Dr. Alston is a recipient of the Music Study Club of Metropolitan Detroit Award, recipient of the ASCAPLUS Award, 2001-2008, Fellowship Award from the Oakland University Spring/Summer 2000 Research Fellowship, a Puffin Foundation Grant for 2007-2008, and numerous OU faculty special project grants. Her music has been recorded on Compact Disc under the Leonarda, Albany, Videmus, Patterson and Calvin College labels. Alston has music scores published with MMB, Vivace Press, Hildegard Publishing, Rhapsody Music Publications and Patterson Publishing. Alston has recently compiled a collection of Religious Music for Voice and Piano in CD format to be distributed and packaged with music scores, 2007.
Complete Works List (in PDF format)
