W. Hazaiah Williams Memorial Concert
Autris Paige, Baritone
- FREE CONCERT
- BUY SUBSCRIPTION
W. Hazaiah Williams is the founder of Today’s Artists Concerts/Four Seasons Arts and was its director from 1958 until his death in 1999. Through this annual concert, we remember and honor his contributions to our local community and to our country.
The Rev. Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams was the first African-American Impresario of a major classical music concert series in this country. He was founder of Four Seasons Arts and Today’s Artists Concerts, which he formed in 1958 and directed until his death in 1999. He was also founder and pastor of the Church For Today in Berkeley and founding president of the Center For Urban-Black Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley where he was awarded two honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees. He led Civil Rights causes in the San Francisco Bay Area, served as Executive Director of the East Bay Conference on Race, Religion and Social Justice and for 8 years was director on the Berkeley Board of Education during the period in which the Berkeley Public Schools were desegregated.
Past memorial concerts:
2010
Harlem String Quartet
ILMAR GAVILAN, Violinist
MELISSA WHITE, Violinist
JUAN-MIGUEL HERNANDEZ, Violist
DESMOND NEYSMITH, Cellist
2009
50th Anniversary Memorial Concert
LEON BATES, pianist
2008
YIN CHENG-ZONG, Pianist
2007
“The Art of the Spiritual”
Three Baritones performing African-American Spirituals
LUIZ-OTTAVIO FARIA – AUTRIS PAIGE – ANTHONY TURNER
2006
CYPRIEN KATSARIS, Pianist
2005
RENE HEREDIA, Flamenco Guitarist
2004
“The Art of the Spiritual”
HILDA HARRIS, Mezzo Soprano
GWENDOLYN BROWN, Contralto
SAMUEL McKELTON, Tenor
AUTRIS PAIGE, Baritone
BRADY MURPHY, Student Artist
2003
“Haydn’s Seven Last Words from the Cross”
RAYE RICHARDSON, Narrator
JEANNE STARK-IOCHMANS, Pianist
2002
“The Art of the Spiritual”
VANESSA AYERS, Mezzo Soprano
SAMUEL McKELTON, Tenor
WILLIAM BROWN, Tenor
AUTRIS PAIGE, Baritone
WILLIAM WARFIELD, Bass-baritone
2001
JEANNE STARK-IOCHMANS, Pianist
2000
“Three Generations”
WILLIAM WARFIELD, Bass-Baritone
BENJAMIN MATTHEWS, Bass-Baritone
ROBERT SIMS, Baritone
1999
VERONICA TYLER, Soprano
At Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York
EWA PODLES, Contralto
Moscow Chamber Orchestra