Lettie Beckon Alston (born 1953) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

known for her piano work and a longstanding series of concerts, "Lettie Alston and Friends."

Biography

Alston was born in 1953 in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

. Alston attended

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

for her undergraduate and masters degrees. In 1983, she earned her doctorate in musical composition from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

(UM) where she had studied with

Leslie Bassett Leslie Raymond Bassett (22 January 1923 – 4 February 2016) was an American composer of classical music. Bassett received the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Bassett had a lifelong relationship with the University of Michigan School of Music. ...

, William Bolcom and Eugene Kurtz. She was the first

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

to earn this degree from UM.

Work

Alston's work includes traditional, as well as electronic instruments. She has composed for orchestra, chamber and vocal groups. In 1995, Alston started a series of concerts at

Oakland University Oakland University is a public research university in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson, it was initially known as Michigan State University-Oakland, operating under the Mi ...

called, "Lettie Alston and Friends." The concerts featured contemporary classical music usually based around a central theme. The last of these concerts took place in 2008. In 2001, her work was recorded on a two CD set, ''Keyboard Maniac''. The set highlighted both her work on acoustic and

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

. She passed away in 2014 while vacationing in Hawaii.

References

External links

Rhapsody No. 4, "Keyboard Maniac"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alston, Lettie 1953 births Musicians from Detroit Wayne State University alumni University of Michigan alumni African-American composers African-American women composers American women composers Living people African-American women musicians 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women 21st-century African-American women