Composer Julia Perry’s Previously Unavailable Catalog of Music is Published

Through a new relationship with Boosey & Hawkes, Perry’s music has been published by Videmus Inc.

A unique figure in American music, Julia Amanda Perry was born in 1924 and gained international recognition during her twenties for her modernist classical compositions.

Born in Lexington, Kentucky, and raised in Ohio, Perry was an African American composer and also excelled as a solo mezzo-soprano, orchestral and choral conductor, violinist, and pianist.

She also wrote vocal and choral works inspired by Black American musical traditions and composed orchestral works, operas, chamber music, and solo instrumental pieces.

She studied voice and composition at Westminster Choir College, where she worked with composer Luigi Dallapiccola at Tanglewood, and received orchestral conducting training at The Juilliard School. Notably, she attended Nadia Boulanger’s renowned composition class at Fontainebleau.

Among Perry’s accolades included the Prix Fontainebleau and two Guggenheim Fellowships; in 1965, her Study for Orchestra was performed by the New York Philharmonic.

Perry also spoke fluent Italian, setting an Italian text in a vocal-orchestral cantata and creating an Italian version of her opera The Cask of Amontillado. Additionally, she wrote original poetry and prose — often composing her own texts and librettos.

In 1970, Perry suffered a paralytic stroke. As musicologist J. Michele Edwards explained: “Her letters reveal her effort to walk, talk, and conduct again. She did learn to write with her left hand and resumed composing; however, she endured tragic emotional and financial difficulties.”

Perry’s work fell into obscurity after her death in 1979 and is only now beginning to receive attention. Until now, many of her roughly 100 compositions have remained unknown.

In 2024, Perry’s centennial year, the Estate of Julia A. Perry assigned all copyrights for her unpublished work to Videmus Inc., a non-profit arts organization dedicated to promoting concert works by African American, women, and under-presented composers, which has now released Perry’s previously unpublished music in a new partnership with Boosey & Hawkes.

Spanning several years, the new publication of Perry's catalog will help scholars to reconstruct her musical and personal journey for future biographers.

When Perry died, 21 of her approximately 100 works had been published, and there was no mechanism to secure permission to publish the rest of her catalog.

In 2021, the Akron Symphony sought a legal solution — with the support of Probate Judge Elinore M. Stormer of Summit County, Ohio, an estate was opened in Perry’s name on October 12, 2022. Over the course of two years, the estate granted permission for performances and recordings, and ultimately transferred copyrights to Perry’s unpublished music to Videmus Inc. in September 2024.

Since then, the three key figures leading the effort to publish Perry’s music have been Videmus’s editorial team of Dr. Louise Toppin; conductor Christopher Wilkins, music director of the Akron Symphony; and conductor James Blachly, music director of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and Experiential Orchestra.

Since 2021, Wilkins has led multiple reading and recording sessions and performed many of Perry’s unpublished works with the Akron Symphony.

Blachly first encountered Perry’s music in 2014 and has championed Perry’s music in performances for the past five years. His latest album with the Experiential Orchestra, “American Counterpoints” on the Bright Shiny Things label, features the first commercial recording of Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra performed with soloist Curtis Stewart. The album is currently nominated for two 2025 GRAMMY Awards in the Classical Compendium and Best Classical Instrumental Solo categories. This is the first GRAMMY nomination for Julia Perry's music.

“Julia Perry’s prominence in music history as an African American woman composer has been erased for too long,” said Videmus’s founder Dr. Louise Toppin. “Her story as a rising star in the world of composition and conducting during the years of extreme segregation in the United States is both compelling and astonishing. Her compositions (although to date her known output is small) show craftsmanship of the highest caliber that appeals to performers and audiences alike. Many of her compositions remain lost. Videmus is devoted to uncovering any works that still lie in publishers’ archives, university libraries, or in public or private collections. The neglect Perry’s music has faced is not unique. We hope that this endeavor might serve as a model for others seeking to bring additional works of unjustly ignored composers to light.”

“During her too-brief career, Julia Perry’s compositions earned praise in every esteemed musical circle from New York to Paris, despite the immense systemic challenges she faced,” added Steven Lankenau, Senior Vice President of Boosey & Hawkes. “She is an indisputably important figure in the history of 20th-century American music, and Boosey & Hawkes is proud to partner with Videmus to bring her unpublished works to the public as this noteworthy composer’s larger legacy continues to unfold.”

(Photo: Rider University Libraries’ Julia A. Perry Collection)