Dr Samantha Ege

Southampton University

Anniversary Research Fellow

Samantha’s Corridor

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England – Canada – United States – Kuwait – Singapore

About

Samantha is a musicologist and concert pianist and based in Oxford, England. She was born in Guildford, Surrey, and shares Nigerian (Urhobo) and Jamaican heritage. Samantha belongs to a new generation of practitioners who are redefining classical music and illuminating the diversity of its past, present, and future.

Samantha taught in Singapore for 6 years. She joined an international school as a relatively shy woman in her early twenties, with a lot to say but not always the courage to say it. One day, she decided to voice her desire to rise professionally at the school. With few teachers of African descent in senior positions in the international school circuit, she had ambitions to develop her practice and realise her leadership potential. Unfortunately she was told “no” and discouraged from wanting to progress. That is when Samantha decided to use her voice in a different way. She started a PhD focused on marginalised voices in classical music. During the school holidays, while her colleagues left for Vietnam, Japan or Sri Lanka, she would continue her research and give performances around the world. Samantha left the school with a PhD, an international reputation as a music historian and classical pianist who advocates for women in music and landed a job as a research fellow at the University of Oxford. She is grateful she did not let the “no” silence her.

Samantha is a leading interpreter and scholar of the African-American composer Florence B. Price. Her performances and publications shed an important light on composers from underrepresented backgrounds. In 2021, Samantha received the American Musicological Society’s Noah Greenberg Award for her recording project on five female composer-pianists from the Black Renaissance era. In 2019, she received both the Society for American Music’s Eileen Southern Fellowship and a Newberry Library Short-Term Residential Fellowship for her work on women’s contributions to concert life in inter-war Chicago. Her first book is called South Side Impresarios: Race Women in the Realm of Music (University of Illinois Press, under contract). She has been contracted as co-author alongside Douglas Shadle of Price (Master Musicians Series, Oxford University Press) and co-editor alongside A. Kori Hill of The Cambridge Companion to Florence B. Price (Cambridge University Press).

Education

Samantha earned a 1st class BA in Music (Hons) from the University of Bristol with an exchange year at McGill University (Canada). She also holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of York.

Highlights

As a concert pianist, Samantha made her Barbican debut in 2021 in which she gave the UK premiere of Vítězslava Kaprálová’s Sonata Appassionata. In her London debut at the 2021 London Festival of American Music, she gave the world premiere of Florence Price’s complete Fantasie Nègre set. In 2018, she made her international lecture-recitalist debut at the Chicago Symphony Center with her event ‘A Celebration of Women in Music: Composing the Black Chicago Renaissance.’ She has additionally presented her research and repertoire at a number of other institutions and venues in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Samantha released her debut album in May 2018 with Wave Theory Records, called ‘Four Women: Music for solo piano by Florence Price, Vítězslava Kaprálová, Ethel Bilsland, and Margaret Bonds’. The album featured the world premiere recording of Bilsland’s The Birthday Party. She released her critically acclaimed second album in March 2021, called ‘Fantasie Nègre: The Piano Music of Florence Price, with Lorelt (Lontano Records Ltd.)’. My third album (also with Lorelt) is called ‘Black Renaissance Woman’ and will be released on March 1, 2022.

Fun Fact

Taekwondo, samba dancing, flamenco, and djembe classes. And managing to stick at Taekwondo the longest, making it to green belt!

Communities are so important. Having networks to celebrate with, lean on, and dream up new ideas with has been so central to my journey. I strongly encourage not going about your work alone. Find like-minded people who can affirm you along the way.”

Samantha on Community and Networks