Black composers

Christopher Wilkins, music director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, has been working to get Black female composer Julia Perry’s work onto stages for years. Legal challenges and Perry’s lack of heirs and a will have kept her intellectual property, including published and unpublished compositions, tied up.

Interdisciplinary artist Pamela Z has been awarded the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts by MIT. The award includes a $100,000 investment in Z’s creative practice and an artist residency at MIT later this spring.

On Saturday, April 16, the Boston Conservatory Orchestra will take to the Symphony Hall stage to celebrate Black composers past and present.

On Friday, Oct. 8 and Sunday, Oct. 10, the Handel and Haydn Society opens its 2021-22 season at Symphony Hall. The program highlights “Suite for String Orchestra,” a piece the organization commissioned composer Jonathan Woody to create based on the works of Black composer Charles Ignatius Sancho.