| Long Bio | dob dod b. 1953 034110
Lettie Beckon Alston received her bachelors and masters degrees from Wayne State ~,iversity, where she studied composition with James Hartway and piano with Mischa Kottler, Wesley Fishwich and Frank Murch. Continuing her education, she was the first African-American composer to obtain a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Michigan where she studied composition with Leslie Bassett, Bill Bolcom and Eugene
Kurzt, plus electronic music with George Wilson. Her piano studies also continued at U of M with Robert Hord and Benning Dexter. Dr. Alston went on to teach at Wayne State University in 1983, The Detroit Public Schools in 1986, Oakland University in 1987 and Eastern Michigan Universtiy in 1988. She returned to teach at Oakland Universtiy in 1991, and is currently Associate Professor of Music. Her orchestra scores The Integrated Concerto, The Eleventh Hour, Anxiety And Biblical Women were premiered in 1987, 1992, 1995 and 1997 by the Pontiac-Oakland and Warren Symphonies. The Eleventh Hour was performed as a finalist composition in 1993 and Biblical Women was a selected semi-finalist composition in 1198 for the National Unisys African-American Symposium Competition, sponsored by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Unisys Corporation. 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 delia Musica, in 1994 National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Alston has had many other performances in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Boston and Illinois. Alston has also premiered her scores entitled, Diverse Imagery, Biblical Women (the , no and voice version), Keyboard Maniac and Spiritual Awakening, A New Heaven And A New Earth, and The End Times at Oakland Universtiy on the Lettie Alston and Friends Concert Series (a professional series featuring faulty and international artists in the performing arts) in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998. Alston has received commissions from the Oakland University Community Chorus, the Great Lakes Men's Chorus, The Lyric Chamber Ensemble, The Oakland University Wind Ensemble and The Meadow Brook Estate ensemble. She is a recipient of the Music Study Club of Metropolitan Detroit Award and numerous faculty grants. Alston's music has been recorded on Compact Disc under Leonarda and Albany labels, her Piano Maniac will be released in 1999 with Videmus
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