Music of Maryland
Encyclopedia
Maryland
is a U.S. state
with a musical heritage that dates back to the Native Americans
of the region and includes contributions to colonial era music
, modern American popular
and folk music
. The music of Maryland includes a number of popular musicians, folk styles and a documented music history that dates to the colonial archives on music from Annapolis
, an important source in research on colonial music. Famous modern musicians from Maryland range from jazz singer Billie Holiday
to pop punk
band Good Charlotte
, and include a wide array of popular styles.
Modern Maryland is home to many well-regarded music venues, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
and Baltimore Opera, and the Peabody Institute
's Conservatory of Music. Baltimore, the largest city in the state, is home to many important local venues, such as the Red Room, a center for the local experimental music
scene, and the house
nightspot Club Choices. Outside of Baltimore, Frederick's Weinberg Center for the Arts
and Rockville's Strathmore
are also important regional venues. The Merriweather Post Pavilion
and 1st Mariner Arena
host most of the largest concerts in the area. Since HFStival
ended its successful run in 2006, Virgin Festival
has taken over as one of the most popular summer festivals on the east coast since its inaugural year in 2006.
's Conservatory of Music. These include Baltimore Choral Arts and the Baltimore Opera, as well as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra formed in 1916 and was the only orchestra in the country to operate as a branch of the city's government. In 1942, the orchestra was reorganized as a private institution. The Orchestra claims that Joseph Meyerhoff
, President of the Orchestra beginning in 1965, and his music director, Sergiu Comissiona
, began the modern history of the BSO and "ensured the creation of an institution, which has become the undisputed leader of the arts community throughout the State of Maryland".
Aside from the prominent Baltimore Symphony, Maryland is also home to several other institutions. The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
, founded in 1962, is a well-known organization that has hosted guests like Cuban violinist Guillermo Perich
and Charlie Byrd
; the Annapolis Orchestra inspired composer David Ott
to create the Annapolis Overture, which debuted in 1995. The Rohrersville Cornet Band
, part of Maryland's cornet band heritage, claims to be the oldest continually performing community band in the state, having been founded in 1837; it now performs in a dedicated music hall in Rohrersville
. The Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras
(MCYO) was formed in the 1946 to "nurture, develop and advance young talented musicians in a quality orchestral program". Beginning in 1964, the Orchestras began to offer new programs, such as a summer camp
that eventually became the Maryland Center for the Arts
.
The largest music venue in Maryland is the Merriweather Post Pavilion
, opened in 1967 and designed by architect Frank Gehry
to avoid disturbing as much as possible the surrounding Symphony Woods; it is an outdoor performance area, home to most of the largest concerts that come through the area. In the 1990s and early 2000s, HFStival
, held by the WHFS
radio station, established itself as an extremely popular annual festival, and became a major draw across the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area
. Since 2006, Virgin Festival
has established itself as a hugely popular festival annually held at Pimlico Race Course
, drawing in a variety of popular acts. The Takoma Park Folk Festival is also well-known among folk music aficionados, and has been held annually since 1978 in Takoma Park, Maryland
.
Baltimore is home to several important concert spaces, including the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Concordia Hall
and the Lyric Opera House
. The Meyerhoff is home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Concordia Hall is a long-standing venue, founded in 1867 by German musical societies, which were then a large portion of Baltimore's population. The Lyric Opera House, founded in 1894, is another important Baltimore music venue; it has hosted many of the most famous performers and public speakers to come to Baltimore. Smaller Hardcore and Punk acts play at the Charm City Art Space
.
The city of Frederick is home to the Weinberg Centre for the Arts, which shows various kinds of theatrical and musical productions. The Weinberg was originally a large movie theater called the Tivoli, opened in 1926; the Tivoli was destroyed in a flood in 1976, and was reopened as the Weinberg Center two years later. North Bethesda's Strathmore
opened in 1976, and is now a home for numerous programs, including the largest of its music venues, the Music Center at Strathmore; the Strathmore has hosted well-known musicians and composers like the cellist Steven Honigberg
, pianist Christopher Taylor
, jazz singers Nnenna Freelon
and Luciana Souza
and composers Virgil Thomson
and Gunther Schuller
, as well as DC-area cult acts like the founder of go go, Chuck Brown
, and the reunited punk band The Slickee Boys
.
lived in the state, but left behind few traces of their musical life. The city of Annapolis was a major center for music during the colonial era; the city's Tuesday Club left behind documentation of musical life in Annapolis, one of the most complete sources for musical knowledge about that era in the United States. The larger city of Baltimore eventually replaced Annapolis as a center for music in Maryland, and eventually became home to most of the prominent music institutions in the state, especially the Peabody Institute
. Later still, Baltimore's Pennsylvania Avenue became a very well known home for African American music
, especially jazz
, while Maryland began producing popular musicians like The Orioles
. In modern times, Maryland has been a home for styles including emo
and hardcore punk
.
s and trumpet
s, are known to have existed in the early history of the Maryland colony, probably as a functional means "of calling the populace to church or to market, or in serving as symbols for sea captains and those from the military"; some folk dancing and ballad singing is also substantiated by the historical record. The early colonists had little tradition of any performance art, due to the small number of individuals, their low standard of living and great poverty and disease.
With the arrival of large numbers of slaves
, however, some white plantation owners earned enough wealth to invest in music and dance. The upper class used instruments like the flute
, violin
and harpsichord
and danced formal dances like the stately minuet
or English country dance
, while the lower classes preferred reels
and jig
s, accompanied by various kinds of guitar
s, drum
s, banjo
s, transverse flute
s and recorder
s, as well as, more rarely, hammered dulcimers and harpsichord
s.
Local music groups during the colonial era did much to sponsor musical development. Annapolis, a major center for colonial music in North America, was home to the Homony Club and the Tuesday Club, while the Freemasons held balls and concerts across Maryland. Unlike the northern United States, religious music did not prosper in Maryland until the end of the colonial period, and then only in Baltimore in the German communities of Carroll
, Montgomery
and Frederick
countries. Tavern owners frequently sponsored dances and concerts during the colonial era. Beginning in 1752, theater became a major part of Maryland culture for colonists of all classes; performances included light dance and incidental music, ballad opera
s and the works of William Shakespeare
. Aside from the cultural capital of Annapolis, the cities of Baltimore, Upper Marlboro
and Chestertown
were major homes for Maryland theater, home to the debuts of the latest and most popular dances. With the French and Indian War
and then the American Revolution
, soldiers brought back home to Maryland military band music, especially fife
and drum ensembles.
By the turn of the century, the middle classes of Maryland were holding regular dances featuring the cotillion
, quadrille
, schottische
, polka
and waltz
. Eastern European dances were also popular, brought by immigrants from various countries. Many immigrants in Maryland moved to Baltimore, forming their own distinct neighborhoods with German liederkranz singing societies, and Irish St. Patrick's Day parades and Jewish chants flourished among their respective communities. Maryland was home to several folk traditions, including the work song
s of rail and canal diggers and the crab- and oystermen of the Chesapeake Bay, whose repertoire varied from hymns to risqué songs and Bahaman shanties
.
By the middle of the 19th century, Baltimore was a major center of sheet music publishing, home to Joseph Carr
, F. D. Benteen
, John Cole
and George Willig
, as well as the piano-building businesses of William Knabe
and Charles Stieff. This period also saw the rise of blackface
minstrel show
s, featuring the pseudo-African American songs of composers like Dan Emmett
and Stephen Foster
.
During the Civil War, Maryland was a border state
, home to people who sympathized with both sides of the conflict. Federal troops occupied Baltimore, and some people who wrote music that favored the Confederacy were jailed; these pieces included "The Confederacy March", "Stonewall Jackson's Way" and "Maryland, My Maryland
", the last later becoming Maryland's state song. The Civil War left several lasting effects on American music nationwide, most importantly the normalization of white and black cultural mixing, especially in music, caused by the mixing of soldiers in multiracial units; military brass band
s became a popular part of the music scene during and after the war, one of the first being the Moxley Band from Frederick
.
The middle of the 19th century saw a wave of immigration from Europe into the United States, including a large number of German musicians who settled in Baltimore; the presence of these musicians, as well as the general growth in urban population with the industrial revolution
and the continued rise of the music publishing industry, helped make music training more affordable for more Americans.
Conservatories
, institutes of music education, were introduced to the United States in the mid to late 19th century, beginning with Baltimore's Peabody Institute
's Conservatory of Music, founded in 1857. The Peabody trained numerous musicians who went on to found most of Baltimore's major musical organizations, including the Baltimore Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
. Though founded in 1857, the Peabody Institute did not hold an orchestral concert until after the Civil War, when James Monroe Deems
directed a concert; Deems was a musician and composer, known for Nebuchadnezzar, one of the first American oratorio
s. He was succeeded by Lucien Southard
, who failed to organize the Institute (then known as the Academy of Music), blaming the lack of a "proper musical atmosphere" in Baltimore. It was not until Asger Hamerik
's reign that the Peabody Symphony Orchestra finally became successful, one of only five professional orchestras in the country at the time. Hamerik was an advocate of American music and regularly included the works of American composers, eschewing the more typical European programs.
The Peabody during Hamerik's leadership produced such noted individuals as Otto Sutro
, publisher, music store owner and host of a music society called the Wednesday Club, and with fellow Peabody alum Fritz Finke, founder of the Oratorio Society. In 1871, Ford's Grand Opera House opened, followed three years later by the Academy of Music
; this new Academy of Music shared the name with the Peabody Institute's organization, but in the same year changed to the Conservatory of Music. The Academy's conductor, Adam Itzel, Jr.
was a very popular composer, known for the national hit light opera The Tar and the Tartar.
and the influential Florestan Club
, which hosted such musicians as Mischa Elman, Leopold Stokowski
and Walter Damrosch. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
was the first permanent orchestra in the city since 1895, when the Peabody Orchestra dissolved; it opened in 1916 with conductor Gustav Strube
; this came only three year's after the formation of the short-lived Baltimore Opera Society, which was eventually replaced by the Baltimore Opera in 1927.
While the largely white middle- and upper-class Baltimoreans supported the orchestras and other societies, the city's African Americans formed their own Coloured Symphony Orchestra in 1931, which was municipally supported just like the BSO; the first performance included Ellis Larkins
and Anne Brown
, the latter known for creating the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess
. At the time, Pennsylvania Avenue (often known simply as The Avenue) was the major scene for Baltimore's black musicians, and was an early home for Eubie Blake
and Noble Sissle
, among others.
and African American folk songs
have been documented. The Library of Congress
' American Folklife Center
has a library of recorded Maryland folk music, which includes a wide array of songs and styles, including Bahamanian
spirituals
, Mexican music
, African American blues
, Appalachian folk music, steelpan
and gospel music
, and Piscataway
Native American music
. Maryland's folk heritage also includes the traditional music of the German communities
of central and western Maryland. Cornet
bands, such as the Rohrersville Cornet Band
, are also a prominent part of Maryland's folk heritage.
The oystermen and others who work on the Chesapeake Bay have their own distinct folk song styles which include hymn
s and work song
s. Some locally popular performers have used these folk themes in their music, including Bob Zentz
and Steve Keith
, all of whom have appeared on records by the Annapolis Maritime Museum's Chesapeake Music Institute. The Piedmont blues
, a style of blues
music, is most closely associated with the music of Virginia
, North Carolina
, Georgia
and South Carolina
, but also exists in Maryland, which has produced modern performers like Warner Williams and Jay Summerour
. Bill Jackson, born 1906, from Granite, Maryland
was an obscure Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. He was discovered by Pete Welding
and recorded his first and only record in 1962. The Piedmont blues arose from a mixture of black gospel music
with white string ensembles, and is characterized by a style of guitar playing influenced by ragtime
and country music
.
Maryland has produced popular musicians from many fields, including doo wop and hardcore punk, as well as the gangsta rap
of Tupac Shakur
, the contemporary R&B
of Toni Braxton
and the pop of Cass Elliott. Though doo wop can be traced to many urban areas across the United States, especially New York City, Sonny Til
's 1946 band called The Vibranaires, later known as The Orioles
, can be considered the first doo wop group. The quirky, genre-crossing Frank Zappa
was also from Maryland, as was Tupac Shakur
, who was born in Harlem
, though he began his career in Baltimore, eventually becoming one of the most famous rappers in hip hop history. Maryland has also produced many renowned jazz musicians, such as Eubie Blake
, Elmer Snowden
and Billie Holiday
. The Urbanite magazine describes Baltimore jazz as variously a wildly varying array of styles or a "hard bop town, where R&B, gospel and bebop meet"; during the middle of the 20th century, Baltimore produced a vibrant local jazz tradition characterized by the use of the B3 organ. Many modern Baltimorean jazz musicians are renowned saxophonists, including Gary Thomas
, Gary Bartz
and the Afro-Caribbean influenced TK Blue. Internationally acclaimed jazz ensemble Fertile Ground
lead by Baltimore native James H. Collins Jr. are also based in Baltimore. Famed Talking Heads
lead singer David Byrne
lived in Baltimore. Jimmie's Chicken Shack
, Good Charlotte
All Time Low
, and O.A.R.
are other popular American rock bands with strong ties to Maryland.
Mama Cass Elliot
of The Mamas & the Papas
was from Maryland, and began her singing career there. Another Maryland band similar to the Mamas and Papas, the Peppermint Rainbow, was discovered by Mama Cass and had a top forty hit with the song "Will you be staying after Sunday". Maryland-based band The Ravyns
are also notable for having their song "Raised on the Radio" appear on the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High
. The Dundalk
-based Chorus of the Chesapeake
won international championships in 1961 and 1971.
Baltimore's hardcore punk
scene has been overshadowed by DC's, but included locally renowned bands like Law & Order, Bollocks, OTR, and Fear of God; many of these bands played at bars like the Marble Bar, Terminal 406 and the illegal space Jule's Loft, which author Steven Blush described as the "apex of the Baltimore (hardcore) scene" in 1983 and 1984. The 1980s also saw the development of a local New Wave
scene led by the bands Ebeneezer & the Bludgeons, Null Set, and Here Today (later Vigil (band)
). Later in the decade, emo
bands like Reptile House
and Grey March had some success and recorded with Ian MacKaye
in DC. Some early Baltimore punk musicians moved onto other local bands by the end of the 1990s, resulting in local mainstays Lungfish
and Fascist Fascist, who became regionally prominent. The Urbanite magazine has identified several major trends in local Baltimorean music, including the rise of psychedelic-folk singer-songwriters like Entrance
and the house/hip hop dance fusion called Baltimore club
, pioneered by DJs like Rod Lee
. More recently, Baltimore's indie rock scene has produced performers like Slot Racer, Cass McCombs
and Mary Prankster
.
Maryland has had a thriving doom metal
scene since the early 90s, and is now considered to have its own "Maryland doom" sound. This scene was started in the late 70s with The Obsessed
, a band led by Scott "Wino" Weinrich
. During this time, Northern Virginia
's Pentagram
also had a heavy influence on the Maryland scene. After disbanding The Obsessed in the mid 80s and moving to California to sing with doom legends Saint Vitus
, Wino reformed The Obsessed and signed to the German based Hellhound Records
. With The Obsessed on board, Hellhound began to sign other Maryland bands, such as Wretched
, Iron Man
, Unorthodox
, Internal Void
, and Revelation
(who already had an album on Rise Above Records
). After Hellhound's demise in the late 90s, many Maryland doom bands were picked up by various other labels, including Southern Lord Records
. After The Obsessed second break up, Wino formed Spirit Caravan
and The Hidden Hand. Both have been very successful in the doom genre. Other current Maryland doom bands include Earthride
, Nitroseed, and Black Manta.
80's metal band, Kix
are from Hagerstown. Death metal band Dying Fetus
are from Upper Marlboro. Heavy Metal band Incision
are from Maryland.
The annual Maryland Deathfest
has become a popular festival for extreme music.
Maryland has a thriving experimental music scene, based around Baltimore. The local scene is led by artists and groups such as Dan Deacon
, Double Dagger
and North Carolina imports Future Islands. Famed group Animal Collective
had their beginnings in the suburbs surrounding Baltimore, and named their breakout 2009
album Merriweather Post Pavilion
after the famed Pavilion in Columbia.
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
is a U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
with a musical heritage that dates back to the Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
of the region and includes contributions to colonial era music
Music history of the United States during the colonial era
The upper-class during the colonial era promoted ensembles who played serenades, feldparthien and divertimenti, such as those composed by Mozart and Haydn. Natural horns and bassoons provided harmonic support for the melodic line, played by clarinets and oboes. Thomas Jefferson suggested this...
, modern American popular
American popular music
American popular music had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, heavy metal, punk, disco, house, techno,...
and folk music
American folk music
American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...
. The music of Maryland includes a number of popular musicians, folk styles and a documented music history that dates to the colonial archives on music from Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, an important source in research on colonial music. Famous modern musicians from Maryland range from jazz singer Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
to pop punk
Pop punk
Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars...
band Good Charlotte
Good Charlotte
Good Charlotte is an American rock band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. Since 1998, the band's constant members have been lead vocalist Joel Madden, lead guitarist and back-up vocalist Benji Madden, bass guitarist Paul Thomas and rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Billy Martin...
, and include a wide array of popular styles.
Modern Maryland is home to many well-regarded music venues, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
and Baltimore Opera, and the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
's Conservatory of Music. Baltimore, the largest city in the state, is home to many important local venues, such as the Red Room, a center for the local experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
scene, and the house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
nightspot Club Choices. Outside of Baltimore, Frederick's Weinberg Center for the Arts
Weinberg Center for the Arts
The Eliyahu 'Weinberg Center for the Arts is an organization and venue in Frederick, Maryland, USA that holds various showings of music, theatre, films and visual art. The theatre was built as the Tivoli Theatre by the Stanley-Crandall concern and opened on December 23, 1926...
and Rockville's Strathmore
Strathmore (Maryland)
Strathmore is a cultural and artistic venue and institution in North Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Strathmore was founded in 1981 and consists of two venues: the Mansion and the Music Center....
are also important regional venues. The Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor concert venue located within Symphony Woods, a 40-acre lot of preserved land in the heart of the planned community of Columbia, Maryland. It was named for the American Post Foods heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post...
and 1st Mariner Arena
1st Mariner Arena
1st Mariner Arena is an arena located in Baltimore, Maryland. In 2003, it was renamed by 1st Mariner Bank, which purchased naming rights to the arena for 10 years. It was reported that 1st Mariner Bank will need to pay the city $75,000 for the next ten years to keep the naming rights to the complex...
host most of the largest concerts in the area. Since HFStival
HFStival
The HFStival is an annual Washington, D.C. / Baltimore, Maryland rock festival. Held every summer from 1990 through 2006 by radio station WHFS, and annually since 2010 in commemoration of the now-defunct station's legacy, the HFStival was at its peak the largest yearly music festival on the East...
ended its successful run in 2006, Virgin Festival
Virgin Festival
The Virgin Fest is a rock festival held in the United States and Canada, a spin-off from the V Festival held in the UK...
has taken over as one of the most popular summer festivals on the east coast since its inaugural year in 2006.
Institutions
Most of the major musical organizations in Baltimore were founded by musicians who trained at the Peabody InstitutePeabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
's Conservatory of Music. These include Baltimore Choral Arts and the Baltimore Opera, as well as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra formed in 1916 and was the only orchestra in the country to operate as a branch of the city's government. In 1942, the orchestra was reorganized as a private institution. The Orchestra claims that Joseph Meyerhoff
Joseph Meyerhoff
Joseph Meyerhoff was an American businessman, fundraiser, and philanthropist based in Baltimore, Maryland. His son is Harvey Meyerhoff.-Biography:...
, President of the Orchestra beginning in 1965, and his music director, Sergiu Comissiona
Sergiu Comissiona
Sergiu Comissiona was a Romanian conductor and violinist.-Early life:...
, began the modern history of the BSO and "ensured the creation of an institution, which has become the undisputed leader of the arts community throughout the State of Maryland".
Aside from the prominent Baltimore Symphony, Maryland is also home to several other institutions. The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra is based in Annapolis, Maryland, and has been in operation since 1962. Its founders included Kenneth W. Page, a well-respected civic leader in the Annapolis area during the 1960s. He was also the music director of the Annapolis High School band...
, founded in 1962, is a well-known organization that has hosted guests like Cuban violinist Guillermo Perich
Guillermo Perich
Guillermo Perich is a Cuban violinist. He has worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Havana Philharmonic, the Mischakoff Quartet, the Walden Quartet, the Saint Louis String Quartet, and as a violist with the Baltimore String Quartet. He has also...
and Charlie Byrd
Charlie Byrd
Charlie Lee Byrd was a famous and versatile American guitarist born in Suffolk, Virginia. His earliest and strongest musical influence was Django Reinhardt, the famous gypsy guitarist. Byrd became the American guitarist who best understood and played Brazilian music, especially the Bossa Nova genre...
; the Annapolis Orchestra inspired composer David Ott
David Ott
David Ott is an American composer of classical music.Born in Crystal Falls, Michigan, Ott's works include four symphonies, an opera , the Annapolis Overture, written for the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and various pieces of children's music. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music ...
to create the Annapolis Overture, which debuted in 1995. The Rohrersville Cornet Band
Rohrersville Cornet Band
The Rohrersville Cornet Band, part of Maryland's cornet band heritage, claims to be the oldest continually-performing community band in the state, having been founded in 1837; it now performs in a dedicated music hall in Rohrersville, Maryland....
, part of Maryland's cornet band heritage, claims to be the oldest continually performing community band in the state, having been founded in 1837; it now performs in a dedicated music hall in Rohrersville
Rohrersville, Maryland
Rohrersville is a census-designated place in Washington County, Maryland, United States. The population was 170 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Rohrersville is located at ....
. The Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras
Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras
The Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, or MCYO, is a youth orchestra program in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area founded in 1946 as the Montgomery County Youth Orchestras. Along with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the National Philharmonic, MCYO is affiliated with the Strathmore...
(MCYO) was formed in the 1946 to "nurture, develop and advance young talented musicians in a quality orchestral program". Beginning in 1964, the Orchestras began to offer new programs, such as a summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
that eventually became the Maryland Center for the Arts
Maryland Center for the Arts
The Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts is a multi-disciplinary arts center in Annapolis, Maryland which offers opportunities in the arts for individuals of all ages, skill levels and backgrounds. It was founded in 1979 to promote art appreciation and education in Maryland.Maryland Hall offers...
.
Venues and festivals
- See also: :Category:Music venues in Maryland
The largest music venue in Maryland is the Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion is an outdoor concert venue located within Symphony Woods, a 40-acre lot of preserved land in the heart of the planned community of Columbia, Maryland. It was named for the American Post Foods heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post...
, opened in 1967 and designed by architect Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
to avoid disturbing as much as possible the surrounding Symphony Woods; it is an outdoor performance area, home to most of the largest concerts that come through the area. In the 1990s and early 2000s, HFStival
HFStival
The HFStival is an annual Washington, D.C. / Baltimore, Maryland rock festival. Held every summer from 1990 through 2006 by radio station WHFS, and annually since 2010 in commemoration of the now-defunct station's legacy, the HFStival was at its peak the largest yearly music festival on the East...
, held by the WHFS
WHFS
WHFS was the call sign for three different FM stations in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore, Maryland markets on various frequencies for nearly 50 years. The first and longest run was a progressive rock station and was usually, and affectionately, referred to as 'HFS...
radio station, established itself as an extremely popular annual festival, and became a major draw across the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area
Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area
The Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area is a combined statistical area consisting of the overlapping labor market region of the cities of Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C.. The region includes Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Jefferson County in the Eastern Panhandle of West...
. Since 2006, Virgin Festival
Virgin Festival
The Virgin Fest is a rock festival held in the United States and Canada, a spin-off from the V Festival held in the UK...
has established itself as a hugely popular festival annually held at Pimlico Race Course
Pimlico Race Course
Pimlico Race Course is a horse racetrack in Baltimore, Maryland, most famous for hosting the Preakness Stakes. Its name is derived from the 1660s when English settlers named the area where the facility currently stands in honor of Olde Ben Pimlico's Tavern in London...
, drawing in a variety of popular acts. The Takoma Park Folk Festival is also well-known among folk music aficionados, and has been held annually since 1978 in Takoma Park, Maryland
Takoma Park, Maryland
Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City," is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone...
.
Baltimore is home to several important concert spaces, including the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Concordia Hall
Concordia Hall
Concordia Hall was a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1867 by Germans from the largest immigrant community in that city. It was the location for readings by Charles Dickens in 1868, during his lst American tour. , and other visiting lecturers and musical groups, and the...
and the Lyric Opera House
Lyric Opera House
The Lyric Opera House is a music venue in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The building was modeled after the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and it was inaugurated on October 31, 1894, with a performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Australian opera singer Nellie Melba as the featured...
. The Meyerhoff is home to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Concordia Hall is a long-standing venue, founded in 1867 by German musical societies, which were then a large portion of Baltimore's population. The Lyric Opera House, founded in 1894, is another important Baltimore music venue; it has hosted many of the most famous performers and public speakers to come to Baltimore. Smaller Hardcore and Punk acts play at the Charm City Art Space
Charm City Art Space
Charm City Art Space is a music venue/art space located at 1731 Maryland Avenue, in Baltimore, Maryland, in the Station North arts district. This area is home to several DIY projects, including the Velocipede Bike Project, and the Jerk Store...
.
The city of Frederick is home to the Weinberg Centre for the Arts, which shows various kinds of theatrical and musical productions. The Weinberg was originally a large movie theater called the Tivoli, opened in 1926; the Tivoli was destroyed in a flood in 1976, and was reopened as the Weinberg Center two years later. North Bethesda's Strathmore
Strathmore (Maryland)
Strathmore is a cultural and artistic venue and institution in North Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Strathmore was founded in 1981 and consists of two venues: the Mansion and the Music Center....
opened in 1976, and is now a home for numerous programs, including the largest of its music venues, the Music Center at Strathmore; the Strathmore has hosted well-known musicians and composers like the cellist Steven Honigberg
Steven Honigberg
Steven Honigberg is an American cellist. He is a member of the National Symphony Orchestra and the Potomac String Quartet, and solos frequently; he is also known as a well-reviewed performer from David Ott's premier of Concerto for Two Cellos. From 1994-2002, Honigberg served as chamber music...
, pianist Christopher Taylor
Christopher Taylor (pianist)
Christopher Taylor is a prominent American pianist.After attending Harvard College, he has worked with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Buffalo Philharmonic, among others...
, jazz singers Nnenna Freelon
Nnenna Freelon
Nnenna Freelon, , is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger. She has been nominated for five Grammy Awards for her vocal work, and has performed and toured with such top artists as Ray Charles, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall,...
and Luciana Souza
Luciana Souza
Luciana Souza is a Brazilian jazz singer and composer who has crossed over into classical music.Daughter of poet Tereza Souza and singer-composer-guitarist Walter Santos, she grew up in São Paulo. She is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston from which she received a Bachelor's...
and composers Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...
and Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
, as well as DC-area cult acts like the founder of go go, Chuck Brown
Chuck Brown
Chuck Brown is a guitarist and singer who is affectionately called "The Godfather of Go-go". Go-go is a subgenre of funk music developed in and around Washington, D.C. in the mid- and late 1970s...
, and the reunited punk band The Slickee Boys
The Slickee Boys
The Slickee Boys were a Washington, D.C. area punk-psychedelic-garage rock band whose most-remembered lineup consisted of guitarist Marshall Keith, guitarist Kim Kane, singer Mark Noone, and drummer Dan Palenski. The band has become a legend in the D.C. punk community...
.
History
The documented music history of Maryland begins during the colonial era, in the 18th century. Prior to that, Native AmericansNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
lived in the state, but left behind few traces of their musical life. The city of Annapolis was a major center for music during the colonial era; the city's Tuesday Club left behind documentation of musical life in Annapolis, one of the most complete sources for musical knowledge about that era in the United States. The larger city of Baltimore eventually replaced Annapolis as a center for music in Maryland, and eventually became home to most of the prominent music institutions in the state, especially the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
. Later still, Baltimore's Pennsylvania Avenue became a very well known home for African American music
African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musics and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States...
, especially jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, while Maryland began producing popular musicians like The Orioles
The Orioles
The Orioles were a successful and influential American R&B group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound....
. In modern times, Maryland has been a home for styles including emo
Emo (music)
Emo is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace...
and hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
.
Colonial era
There is little historical record of music in Maryland prior to the 18th century; the Native Americans of the area left little or no trace of their musical life. A few instruments, such as drumDrum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s and trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
s, are known to have existed in the early history of the Maryland colony, probably as a functional means "of calling the populace to church or to market, or in serving as symbols for sea captains and those from the military"; some folk dancing and ballad singing is also substantiated by the historical record. The early colonists had little tradition of any performance art, due to the small number of individuals, their low standard of living and great poverty and disease.
With the arrival of large numbers of slaves
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, however, some white plantation owners earned enough wealth to invest in music and dance. The upper class used instruments like the flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
and danced formal dances like the stately minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
or English country dance
English Country Dance
English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of...
, while the lower classes preferred reels
Reel (dance)
The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....
and jig
Jig
The Jig is a form of lively folk dance, as well as the accompanying dance tune, originating in England in the 16th century and today most associated with Irish dance music and Scottish country dance music...
s, accompanied by various kinds of guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
s, transverse flute
Transverse flute
A transverse flute or side-blown flute is a flute which is held horizontally when played. The player blows "across" the embouchure hole, in a direction perpendicular to the flute's body length....
s and recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
s, as well as, more rarely, hammered dulcimers and harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
s.
Local music groups during the colonial era did much to sponsor musical development. Annapolis, a major center for colonial music in North America, was home to the Homony Club and the Tuesday Club, while the Freemasons held balls and concerts across Maryland. Unlike the northern United States, religious music did not prosper in Maryland until the end of the colonial period, and then only in Baltimore in the German communities of Carroll
Carroll County, Maryland
Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. In 2010, its population was 167,134. It was named for Charles Carroll of Carrollton , signer of the American Declaration of Independence. Its county seat is Westminster....
, Montgomery
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Maryland, situated just to the north of Washington, D.C., and southwest of the city of Baltimore. It is one of the most affluent counties in the United States, and has the highest percentage of residents over 25 years of age who hold post-graduate...
and Frederick
Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland, bordering the southern border of Pennsylvania and the northeastern border of Virginia. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 233,385....
countries. Tavern owners frequently sponsored dances and concerts during the colonial era. Beginning in 1752, theater became a major part of Maryland culture for colonists of all classes; performances included light dance and incidental music, ballad opera
Ballad opera
The term ballad opera is used to refer to a genre of English stage entertainment originating in the 18th century and continuing to develop in the following century and later. There are many types of ballad opera...
s and the works of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. Aside from the cultural capital of Annapolis, the cities of Baltimore, Upper Marlboro
Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Upper Marlboro is a town in and the county seat of Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The live-in population of the town core proper was only 648 at the 2000 census, although Greater Upper Marlboro is many times larger....
and Chestertown
Chestertown, Maryland
Chestertown is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States. The population was 4,746 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Kent County. The ZIP code is 21620 and the area codes are 410 and 443...
were major homes for Maryland theater, home to the debuts of the latest and most popular dances. With the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
and then the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, soldiers brought back home to Maryland military band music, especially fife
Fife (musical instrument)
A fife is a small, high-pitched, transverse flute that is similar to the piccolo, but louder and shriller due to its narrower bore. The fife originated in medieval Europe and is often used in military and marching bands. Someone who plays the fife is called a fifer...
and drum ensembles.
Early independence and 19th century
Professional theater in Maryland died out during the Revolution but was reestablished by 1780, now with Baltimore having replaced Annapolis as a cultural capital in the state. Maryland ratified the Constitution on April 28, 1788 and became the 7th state. The Holiday Street Theater in Baltimore opened in 1793 and was one of the first large theaters in the country, showcasing light theater, opera, and concerts. In 1822, Arthur Clifton from Baltimore debuted his opera The Enterprise, while religious music flourished after the 1821 opening of the Catholic Cathedral in the country. The African Methodist Episcopal churches in Maryland were home to singing traditions using the shape-note method.By the turn of the century, the middle classes of Maryland were holding regular dances featuring the cotillion
Cotillion
In American usage, a cotillion is a formal ball and social gathering, often the venue for presenting débutantes during the débutante season – usually May through December. Cotillions are also used as classes to teach social etiquette, respect and common morals for the younger ages with the...
, quadrille
Quadrille
Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
, schottische
Schottische
The schottische is a partnered country dance, that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina , Finland , France, Italy, Norway , Portugal and Brazil , Spain ...
, polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
and waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
. Eastern European dances were also popular, brought by immigrants from various countries. Many immigrants in Maryland moved to Baltimore, forming their own distinct neighborhoods with German liederkranz singing societies, and Irish St. Patrick's Day parades and Jewish chants flourished among their respective communities. Maryland was home to several folk traditions, including the work song
Work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
s of rail and canal diggers and the crab- and oystermen of the Chesapeake Bay, whose repertoire varied from hymns to risqué songs and Bahaman shanties
Music of the Bahamas
The music of the Bahamas is associated primarily with junkanoo, a celebration which occurs on Boxing Day and again on New Year's Day. Parades and other celebrations mark the ceremony...
.
By the middle of the 19th century, Baltimore was a major center of sheet music publishing, home to Joseph Carr
Joseph Carr
Joseph "Joe" F. Carr was the president of the National Football League from 1921 until his death in 1939. Carr was born in Columbus, Ohio. As a mechanic for the Pennsylvania Railroad in Columbus, he directed the Columbus Panhandles football team in 1907 until 1922...
, F. D. Benteen
F. D. Benteen
F. D. Benteen was an American sheet music publisher and composer during the 19th century, based out of Baltimore, Maryland. His compositions include the Civil War song "Joys That We've Tasted". As a publisher, he is perhaps best-known for publishing many of the works of Stephen Foster....
, John Cole
John Cole (music publisher)
John Cole was a British-born American music printer, publisher and composer based in Baltimore.Born in Tewkesbury, England, he emigrated to Baltimore in 1785 with his family....
and George Willig
George Willig
George Willig is a mountain-climber from Queens, New York, United States, who climbed the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 26 May 1977, about 2½ years after tightrope walker Phillippe Petit walked between the tops of the two towers...
, as well as the piano-building businesses of William Knabe
William Knabe
Wm. Knabe & Co. was a piano manufacturing company in Baltimore, Maryland from the middle of the nineteenth century through the beginning of the 20th century, and continued as a division of Aeolian-American at East Rochester, New York until 1982...
and Charles Stieff. This period also saw the rise of blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
s, featuring the pseudo-African American songs of composers like Dan Emmett
Dan Emmett
Daniel Decatur "Dan" Emmett was an American songwriter and entertainer, founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition.-Biography:...
and Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
.
During the Civil War, Maryland was a border state
Border states (Civil War)
In the context of the American Civil War, the border states were slave states that did not declare their secession from the United States before April 1861...
, home to people who sympathized with both sides of the conflict. Federal troops occupied Baltimore, and some people who wrote music that favored the Confederacy were jailed; these pieces included "The Confederacy March", "Stonewall Jackson's Way" and "Maryland, My Maryland
Maryland, My Maryland
"Maryland, My Maryland" is the official state song of the U.S. state of Maryland. The song is set to the tune of "Lauriger Horatius" and the lyrics are from a nine-stanza poem written by James Ryder Randall...
", the last later becoming Maryland's state song. The Civil War left several lasting effects on American music nationwide, most importantly the normalization of white and black cultural mixing, especially in music, caused by the mixing of soldiers in multiracial units; military brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s became a popular part of the music scene during and after the war, one of the first being the Moxley Band from Frederick
Frederick, Maryland
Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...
.
The middle of the 19th century saw a wave of immigration from Europe into the United States, including a large number of German musicians who settled in Baltimore; the presence of these musicians, as well as the general growth in urban population with the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
and the continued rise of the music publishing industry, helped make music training more affordable for more Americans.
Music school
The term music school refers to an educational institution specialized in the study, training and research of music.Different terms refer to this concept such as school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department or conservatory.Music instruction can be provided...
, institutes of music education, were introduced to the United States in the mid to late 19th century, beginning with Baltimore's Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
's Conservatory of Music, founded in 1857. The Peabody trained numerous musicians who went on to found most of Baltimore's major musical organizations, including the Baltimore Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
. Though founded in 1857, the Peabody Institute did not hold an orchestral concert until after the Civil War, when James Monroe Deems
James Monroe Deems
James Monroe Deems was an American composer and music educator from Baltimore, Maryland, as well as a distinguished Union Army officer during the American Civil War. He served as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Maryland Cavalry and was brevetted as a brigadier general of U.S...
directed a concert; Deems was a musician and composer, known for Nebuchadnezzar, one of the first American oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
s. He was succeeded by Lucien Southard
Lucien Southard
Lucien Southard was an American conductor, who directed concerts at the Peabody Institute following the tenure of James Monroe Deems. Southard's reign in control of the Institute was not entirely positive, a situation which Southard blamed on the lack of a "proper musical atmosphere" in...
, who failed to organize the Institute (then known as the Academy of Music), blaming the lack of a "proper musical atmosphere" in Baltimore. It was not until Asger Hamerik
Asger Hamerik
Asger Hamerik , was a Danish composer of classical music.Born in Frederiksberg , he studied music with J.P.E. Hartmann and Niels Gade. He wrote his first pieces in his teens, including an unperformed symphony...
's reign that the Peabody Symphony Orchestra finally became successful, one of only five professional orchestras in the country at the time. Hamerik was an advocate of American music and regularly included the works of American composers, eschewing the more typical European programs.
The Peabody during Hamerik's leadership produced such noted individuals as Otto Sutro
Otto Sutro
Otto Sutro was a German-born American organist, conductor, minor composer, publisher and music store owner, and a leading figure in the musical life of Baltimore, Maryland.Sutro was born in Aachen, Germany...
, publisher, music store owner and host of a music society called the Wednesday Club, and with fellow Peabody alum Fritz Finke, founder of the Oratorio Society. In 1871, Ford's Grand Opera House opened, followed three years later by the Academy of Music
Academy of Music (Baltimore)
The Academy of Music in Baltimore, Maryland was an important music venue in that city after opening following the American Civil War. The Academy was located at 516 North Howard Street. The Academy was demolished in the late 1920s, as the Stanley Theatre was being built in the same block....
; this new Academy of Music shared the name with the Peabody Institute's organization, but in the same year changed to the Conservatory of Music. The Academy's conductor, Adam Itzel, Jr.
Adam Itzel, Jr.
Adam Itzel, Jr. was a 19th-century American conductor and composer. He was the conductor of the Academy of Music in Baltimore, Maryland...
was a very popular composer, known for the national hit light opera The Tar and the Tartar.
Early 20th century
There were a number of mostly informal musical societies in Maryland by the end of the 19th century, including the famous Saturday Night Club of H. L. MenckenH. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a scholar of American English. Known as the "Sage of Baltimore", he is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the...
and the influential Florestan Club
Florestan Club
The Florestan Club was a social club in Baltimore, Maryland. They founded the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1915, ensuring that it was municipally-funded.Members included H. L. Mencken.- References :*...
, which hosted such musicians as Mischa Elman, Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
and Walter Damrosch. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is a professional American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland.In September 2007, Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra’s twelfth music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra.The BSO Board...
was the first permanent orchestra in the city since 1895, when the Peabody Orchestra dissolved; it opened in 1916 with conductor Gustav Strube
Gustav Strube
Gustav Strube was a German-born conductor and composer. He was the founding conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 1916, and taught at the Peabody Conservatory. He wrote two operas, Ramona, which premiered in 1916, and The Captive, which premiered at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore in...
; this came only three year's after the formation of the short-lived Baltimore Opera Society, which was eventually replaced by the Baltimore Opera in 1927.
While the largely white middle- and upper-class Baltimoreans supported the orchestras and other societies, the city's African Americans formed their own Coloured Symphony Orchestra in 1931, which was municipally supported just like the BSO; the first performance included Ellis Larkins
Ellis Larkins
Ellis Larkins was an African-American jazz pianist born in Baltimore, Maryland, perhaps best known for his two recordings with Ella Fitzgerald, the albums Ella Sings Gershwin and Songs in a Mellow Mood .Larkins was the first African American to attend the Peabody Conservatory of Music, a...
and Anne Brown
Anne Brown
Anne Wiggins Brown was an African American soprano who created the role of "Bess" in the original production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. She was also a radio and concert singer...
, the latter known for creating the role of Bess in Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
. At the time, Pennsylvania Avenue (often known simply as The Avenue) was the major scene for Baltimore's black musicians, and was an early home for Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
and Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle
Noble Sissle was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright.-Early life:...
, among others.
Folk music
Maryland's folk music heritage remains little studied. There have been no major musicological studies in Maryland, though some Anglo-AmericanAnglo-American music
The Thirteen Colonies of the original United States were all former English possessions, and Anglo culture became a major foundation for American folk and popular music.- Overview :...
and African American folk songs
African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musics and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States...
have been documented. The Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
' American Folklife Center
American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife" . The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music...
has a library of recorded Maryland folk music, which includes a wide array of songs and styles, including Bahamanian
The Bahamas
The Bahamas , officially the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, is a nation consisting of 29 islands, 661 cays, and 2,387 islets . It is located in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cuba and Hispaniola , northwest of the Turks and Caicos Islands, and southeast of the United States...
spirituals
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
, Mexican music
Music of Mexico
The music of Mexico is very diverse and features a wide range of different musical styles. It has been influenced by a variety of cultures, most notably indigenous Mexican and European, since the Late Middle Ages...
, African American blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, Appalachian folk music, steelpan
Steelpan
Steelpans is a musical instrument originating from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago...
and gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and Piscataway
Piscataway Indian Nation
The Piscataway Indian Nation and Tayac Territory is an unrecognized Native American tribe in Maryland that is related to the historic Piscataway tribe. At the time of European encounter, the Piscataway was one of the most populous and powerful Native polities of the Chesapeake Bay region, with a...
Native American music
Native American music
American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...
. Maryland's folk heritage also includes the traditional music of the German communities
Music of Germany
Forms of German-language music include Neue Deutsche Welle , Krautrock, Hamburger Schule, Volksmusik, Classical, German hip hop, trance, Schlager, Neue Deutsche Härte and diverse varieties of folk music, such as Waltz and Medieval metal....
of central and western Maryland. Cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
bands, such as the Rohrersville Cornet Band
Rohrersville Cornet Band
The Rohrersville Cornet Band, part of Maryland's cornet band heritage, claims to be the oldest continually-performing community band in the state, having been founded in 1837; it now performs in a dedicated music hall in Rohrersville, Maryland....
, are also a prominent part of Maryland's folk heritage.
The oystermen and others who work on the Chesapeake Bay have their own distinct folk song styles which include hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
s and work song
Work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
s. Some locally popular performers have used these folk themes in their music, including Bob Zentz
Bob Zentz
Bob Zentz is an American musician and educator from Norfolk, Virginia who has been performing for more than thirty years. He is a guitarist and also plays the autoharp, lute, melodeon, mouth harp, banjo, concertina and mandolin...
and Steve Keith
Steve Keith
Steve Keith is a Maryland-based folk musician, a singer-songwriter who also plays the guitar, fiddle and harmonica. He is originally from New Castle Island in New Hampshire, but spends his summers in the Tidewater Area of Virginia and his winters in New Orleans, where he is known as "Curly".Keith...
, all of whom have appeared on records by the Annapolis Maritime Museum's Chesapeake Music Institute. The Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues refers primarily to a guitar style, the Piedmont fingerstyle, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the treble strings generally picked with the fore-finger,...
, a style of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
music, is most closely associated with the music of Virginia
Music of Virginia
Virginia's musical contribution to American culture has been diverse, and includes Piedmont blues musicians and later rock and roll bands, many centered at such college towns as Charlottesville and Richmond.-Notable music artists from Virginia by genre:...
, North Carolina
Music of North Carolina
North Carolina is known particularly for its tradition of old-time music, and many recordings were made in the early 20th century by folk song collector Bascom Lamar Lunsford...
, Georgia
Music of Georgia
Georgia has rich and still vibrant traditional music, which is primarily known as arguably the earliest polyphonic tradition of the Christian world. Situated on the border of Europe and Asia, Georgia is also a home of variety of urban singing styles with the mixture of native polyphony, Middle...
and South Carolina
Music of South Carolina
South Carolina is one of the Southern United States, and has produced a number of renowned performers of rock, R&B, country, bluegrass and other styles. In 1766, Charlestown, South Carolina became the home of the St. Cecilia Society, the first musical society in North America...
, but also exists in Maryland, which has produced modern performers like Warner Williams and Jay Summerour
Warner Williams and Jay Summerour
Warner Williams and Jay Summerour are an American folk duo, who sometimes perform under the name Little Bit of Blues. They have played at a number of folk and blues festivals, as well as at concerts at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C...
. Bill Jackson, born 1906, from Granite, Maryland
Granite, Maryland
Granite is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. Originally known as Waltersville, it was renamed Granite in recognition of its principal product...
was an obscure Piedmont blues guitarist and singer. He was discovered by Pete Welding
Pete Welding
Pete Welding was an American blues historian, archivist and record producer.Born Peter J. Welding in Philadelphia, he worked as a journalist for Down Beat magazine and occasionally freelanced for other publications including Rolling Stone...
and recorded his first and only record in 1962. The Piedmont blues arose from a mixture of black gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
with white string ensembles, and is characterized by a style of guitar playing influenced by ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
.
Popular music
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
of Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
, the contemporary R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
of Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton
Toni Michelle Braxton is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Braxton has won six Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, and five Billboard Music Awards and has sold over 60 million records worldwide...
and the pop of Cass Elliott. Though doo wop can be traced to many urban areas across the United States, especially New York City, Sonny Til
Sonny Til
Sonny Til was the stage name of Earlington Carl Tilghman , lead singer of The Orioles, a vocal group from Baltimore, Maryland....
's 1946 band called The Vibranaires, later known as The Orioles
The Orioles
The Orioles were a successful and influential American R&B group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound....
, can be considered the first doo wop group. The quirky, genre-crossing Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
was also from Maryland, as was Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Amaru Shakur , known by his stage names 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper and actor. Shakur has sold over 75 million albums worldwide as of 2007, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world...
, who was born in Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
, though he began his career in Baltimore, eventually becoming one of the most famous rappers in hip hop history. Maryland has also produced many renowned jazz musicians, such as Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
, Elmer Snowden
Elmer Snowden
Elmer Snowden was a banjo player of the jazz age. He also played guitar and, in the early stages of his career, all the reed instruments. He contributed greatly to jazz in its early days as both a player and a bandleader, and is responsible for launching the careers of many top musicians...
and Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. The Urbanite magazine describes Baltimore jazz as variously a wildly varying array of styles or a "hard bop town, where R&B, gospel and bebop meet"; during the middle of the 20th century, Baltimore produced a vibrant local jazz tradition characterized by the use of the B3 organ. Many modern Baltimorean jazz musicians are renowned saxophonists, including Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Greg Osby, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra...
, Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
and the Afro-Caribbean influenced TK Blue. Internationally acclaimed jazz ensemble Fertile Ground
Fertile ground
Fertile Ground is an American soul jazz band led by James H. Collins Jr. The group was founded in Baltimore, Maryland and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.- History :...
lead by Baltimore native James H. Collins Jr. are also based in Baltimore. Famed Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
lead singer David Byrne
David Byrne (musician)
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...
lived in Baltimore. Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Jimmie's Chicken Shack is an American alternative rock band from Annapolis, Maryland. They emerged through MTV as one of the first Post-Grunge bands of the era...
, Good Charlotte
Good Charlotte
Good Charlotte is an American rock band from Waldorf, Maryland that formed in 1996. Since 1998, the band's constant members have been lead vocalist Joel Madden, lead guitarist and back-up vocalist Benji Madden, bass guitarist Paul Thomas and rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Billy Martin...
All Time Low
All Time Low
All Time Low is an American pop punk band from Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2003.The band consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alexander Gaskarth, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Jack Barakat, bassist and backing vocalist Zachary Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson...
, and O.A.R.
O.A.R.
O.A.R. is an American rock band composed of Marc Roberge , Chris Culos , Richard On , Benj Gershman , and Jerry DePizzo...
are other popular American rock bands with strong ties to Maryland.
Mama Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot
Cass Elliot , born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. Elliot was found dead in her room in London, England, from an apparent heart attack after two weeks of sold-out...
of The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
was from Maryland, and began her singing career there. Another Maryland band similar to the Mamas and Papas, the Peppermint Rainbow, was discovered by Mama Cass and had a top forty hit with the song "Will you be staying after Sunday". Maryland-based band The Ravyns
The Ravyns
The Ravyns are an American rock group from Baltimore, best known for 1982's Raised on the Radio, a major hit and part of the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High...
are also notable for having their song "Raised on the Radio" appear on the soundtrack to Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name...
. The Dundalk
Dundalk, Maryland
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 62,306 people, 24,772 households, and 16,968 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 4,689.5 people per square mile . There were 26,385 housing units at an average density of 1,985.9 per square mile...
-based Chorus of the Chesapeake
Chorus of the Chesapeake
The Chorus of the Chesapeake is a men's a cappella chorus, based in Dundalk, Maryland. Chartered in 1957 as the Dundalk chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society, the chorus is rich in both history and accomplishment.-Early history:...
won international championships in 1961 and 1971.
Baltimore's hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
scene has been overshadowed by DC's, but included locally renowned bands like Law & Order, Bollocks, OTR, and Fear of God; many of these bands played at bars like the Marble Bar, Terminal 406 and the illegal space Jule's Loft, which author Steven Blush described as the "apex of the Baltimore (hardcore) scene" in 1983 and 1984. The 1980s also saw the development of a local New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
scene led by the bands Ebeneezer & the Bludgeons, Null Set, and Here Today (later Vigil (band)
Vigil (band)
Vigil was a mid to late 1980s modern rock band based out of Baltimore, Maryland.-Biography:The band formed originally under the name Here Today out of the Baltimore's modern rock/gothic music scene in the early 80's. A single drew some attention from CBS Records, and the band was signed. In...
). Later in the decade, emo
Emo (music)
Emo is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace...
bands like Reptile House
Reptile House
Reptile House was a 1980s hardcore punk band from Baltimore's music scene. The band included Daniel Higgs, later of Lungfish, guitarists Alex Layne, Asa Osborne and Joe Goldsborough, bass players David Rhodes and Leigh Panlilio, as well as drummers Gary Breezee and London May who went on to play...
and Grey March had some success and recorded with Ian MacKaye
Ian MacKaye
Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, label owner, and producer. Active since 1979, MacKaye is best known for being the frontman of the influential hardcore punk bands Minor Threat and The Teen Idles, the post-hardcore bands Embrace and Fugazi, as well...
in DC. Some early Baltimore punk musicians moved onto other local bands by the end of the 1990s, resulting in local mainstays Lungfish
Lungfish (band)
Lungfish is a post-hardcore band formed in 1987 in Baltimore, Maryland. All of their music has been released by the Washington, D.C. punk label Dischord except for their first LP, Necklace of Heads which was released by Simple Machines .Their line-up as of 2005 consists of Daniel Higgs , Asa...
and Fascist Fascist, who became regionally prominent. The Urbanite magazine has identified several major trends in local Baltimorean music, including the rise of psychedelic-folk singer-songwriters like Entrance
Entrance (musician)
The Entrance Band is a band started by Guy Blakeslee . Their style of music has been described as psychedelic rock or stoner rock....
and the house/hip hop dance fusion called Baltimore club
Baltimore Club
Baltimore club, also called "Bmore Club" or "Club Music" is a breakbeat genre. As blend with hip hop and chopped, staccato house music, it was created in Baltimore, Maryland, United States in the late 1980s by 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell, Frank Ski, Big Tony , Scottie B...
, pioneered by DJs like Rod Lee
Rod Lee
Rod Lee is a Baltimore DJ, producer, and party MC. who is known for the popularization of Baltimore Club music. Described as "the original don of Baltimore Club" by The Washington Post, in 2005 he released "Vol. 5: the Official," a DJ mix that was the first Baltimore Club CD to be distributed...
. More recently, Baltimore's indie rock scene has produced performers like Slot Racer, Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs
Cass McCombs is an American songwriter and performer. Called "unobtrusively brilliant" by John Peel, he has received widespread critical acclaim for his five LPs and one EP.- History :Cass McCombs was born in Concord, California...
and Mary Prankster
Mary Prankster
Mary Prankster was the moniker for a U.S. singer-songwriter primarily associated with Baltimore who played a blend of alternative/indie music with extremely frank lyrics. The name is a reference to Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters...
.
Maryland has had a thriving doom metal
Doom metal
Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...
scene since the early 90s, and is now considered to have its own "Maryland doom" sound. This scene was started in the late 70s with The Obsessed
The Obsessed
The Obsessed is a doom metal band from Maryland led by Scott "Wino" Weinrich, who also fronted Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place of Skulls, The Hidden Hand and W.I.N.O.. Formed in 1976, they first split up in 1986 when Wino Saint Vitus, but reformed four years later...
, a band led by Scott "Wino" Weinrich
Scott Weinrich
Robert Scott "Wino" Weinrich is a doom metal guitarist and vocalist. Active since 1976, when he started his first band War Horse, Weinrich is best known for being the frontman and guitarist of the doom metal bands The Obsessed and Saint Vitus...
. During this time, Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia
Northern Virginia consists of several counties and independent cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in a widespread region generally radiating southerly and westward from Washington, D.C...
's Pentagram
Pentagram (band)
Pentagram is a American heavy metal band from Virginia, most famous as one of the pioneers of doom metal. The band was prolific in the underground scene of the 1970s, producing many demos and rehearsal tapes, but did not release a full-length album until reforming in the early 1980s with an almost...
also had a heavy influence on the Maryland scene. After disbanding The Obsessed in the mid 80s and moving to California to sing with doom legends Saint Vitus
Saint Vitus (band)
Saint Vitus is an American doom metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1978. They consist of founding members Dave Chandler and Mark Adams , alongside sporadic singer Scott Weinrich and recently added drummer Henry Vasquez...
, Wino reformed The Obsessed and signed to the German based Hellhound Records
Hellhound Records
Hellhound Records was a German record label during the late 80s and 90s, self-described as "The Heaviest Label On Earth". They became known for putting out doom metal, with artists such as Saint Vitus and The Obsessed. In the early 90s Hellhound signed a number of Maryland doom bands such as...
. With The Obsessed on board, Hellhound began to sign other Maryland bands, such as Wretched
Wretched (doom band)
Wretched were a doom metal band from Maryland during the 1990s.-Biography:Wretched was one of many Maryland doom bands to be picked up by Hellhound Records in the early 90s. The band put out three albums on Hellhound before disbanding. Singer Dave Sherman would go on to play bass in Spirit Caravan...
, Iron Man
Iron Man (band)
-Biography:Iron Man evolved from earlier Alfred Morris III projects Force and Rat Salad. In 1988 the band decided to become a Black Sabbath cover band and changed their name to Iron Man. In 1999 the band released their third studio album, Generation Void. Each album has had a new line-up with...
, Unorthodox
Unorthodox (band)
-Biography:Unorthodox, which evolved from the by-then-defunct band Obstination, were originally called Asylum. They changed their name to Unorthodox after a band with a similar name achieved national success. They were one of many Maryland bands to be picked up in the early 90s by Germany's...
, Internal Void
Internal Void
-Biography:Internal Void came together in 1987 after Kelly Carmichael, Eric Little and Adam Heinzmann attended a Saint Vitus concert. The band later recruited J.D. Williams as a vocalist and put out two demo recordings in the late 80s/early 90s...
, and Revelation
Revelation (band)
-Biography:Revelation started in 1986 by singer/guitarist John Brenner and drummer Steve Branagan. After numerous demos they were featured on Rise Above Records compilation Dark Passages. They put out one album with Rise Above before signing with Hellhound Records. They put out two albums with...
(who already had an album on Rise Above Records
Rise Above Records
Rise Above Records is a London, England based independent record label owned by Lee Dorrian . It is named after a Napalm Death song from their EP Mentally Murdered. It was formed in the late 1980s and originally made to sell live releases by Napalm Death and S.O.B., but by 1991 had changed to cater...
). After Hellhound's demise in the late 90s, many Maryland doom bands were picked up by various other labels, including Southern Lord Records
Southern Lord Records
Southern Lord is an American record label that was founded in 1998 by Greg Anderson, specializing in what could broadly be classified as experimental heavy metal, particularly the doom metal, stoner rock, and drone metal sub-genres. Some of the more notable artists on the label include Earth, Om,...
. After The Obsessed second break up, Wino formed Spirit Caravan
Spirit Caravan
Spirit Caravan was a Maryland doom/stoner metal band featuring the guitarist and vocalist Scott Weinrich.-Biography:Scott "Wino" Weinrich formed Spirit Caravan after the breakup of The Obsessed. The remainder of the band consisted of Dave Shermann on bass and vocals; and Gary Isom on drums...
and The Hidden Hand. Both have been very successful in the doom genre. Other current Maryland doom bands include Earthride
Earthride
-Biography:Earthride formed in 2000 after the demise of Dave Sherman's previous band, Spirit Caravan. They released their self-titled EP the same year on their own Earth Brain label. They recorded their next release, 2002's Taming of the Demons, with Corrosion of Conformity's Mike Dean acting as...
, Nitroseed, and Black Manta.
80's metal band, Kix
Kix (band)
Kix is an American hard rock/heavy metal band who achieved popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Band members continue to tour, recently appearing at the Rocklahoma festival in 2008 in Oklahoma and the M3 Rock Festival in May 2011 in the band's home state of Maryland.-Formation:Kix was...
are from Hagerstown. Death metal band Dying Fetus
Dying Fetus
Dying Fetus is an American death metal band from Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Formed in 1991, the group is known for their outspoken political views, and for being one of the few death metal bands who follow a political nature. Earlier lyrics showcased the common death metal trait of explicit violence...
are from Upper Marlboro. Heavy Metal band Incision
Incision (band)
Incision is an American heavy metal band from Baltimore, Maryland that formed in 2008. They formed originally under the name Maelstrom but changed their name to prevent potential legal issues.-History:...
are from Maryland.
The annual Maryland Deathfest
Maryland Deathfest
Maryland Deathfest is an annual extreme music festival held in or near Baltimore, Maryland, USA. The festival mostly features death metal and grindcore bands. It has always occurred during Memorial Day weekend each year....
has become a popular festival for extreme music.
Maryland has a thriving experimental music scene, based around Baltimore. The local scene is led by artists and groups such as Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon
Dan Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels...
, Double Dagger
Double Dagger
Double Dagger were a post-punk trio from Baltimore, Maryland composed of only drums, vocals, and a very loud bass guitar which fills the space a guitar would normally take. Vocalist Nolen Strals and bassist Bruce Willen also comprised the graphic design team Post Typography, which has done work for...
and North Carolina imports Future Islands. Famed group Animal Collective
Animal Collective
Animal Collective is an experimental psychedelic band originally from Baltimore, Maryland, currently based in New York City. Animal Collective consists of Avey Tare , Panda Bear , Deakin , and Geologist...
had their beginnings in the suburbs surrounding Baltimore, and named their breakout 2009
2009 in music
The following is a list of notable events and releases in 2009 in music. Susan Boyle's album I Dreamed a Dream became the biggest selling album in the world for 2009, selling 8.3 million copies in five weeks; more than any other artist's in the whole year...
album Merriweather Post Pavilion
Merriweather Post Pavilion (album)
Merriweather Post Pavilion is the eighth studio album by American indie rock group Animal Collective, released in January 2009 on Domino Records. The album is named after the Columbia, Maryland venue, Merriweather Post Pavilion. At nearly 55 minutes in length, the album is the group's longest since...
after the famed Pavilion in Columbia.