There’s a white cardboard box in my linen closet, stuffed with old-fashioned doilies—hand-stitched lace and crocheted mats made by my grandmother, Helen Wheeler. Some are yellowed with age. Others still glow with fresh colors.
My thoughts flashed on that box as I was listening to a new recording from Canadian pianist Luke Welch.
In Herstory, Welch offers elegant, deft performances of solo piano works by women composers of color. Each selection feels like an openwork lace tapestry—music that invites easy listening for the mind and heart, while also encouraging a deeper exploration of these largely forgotten lives.
Consider Estelle Ricketts’s “Rippling Spring Waltz,” the earliest known piano solo written by a Black woman. Ricketts’s father, Allen, was born into slavery, and his life story could anchor a suspenseful film about hope, courage, and self-determination. To my ears, her charming waltz belies the drama and hardship woven into her family’s history.
Similarly, Lady Viola Kinney’s “Mother’s Sacrifice” unfolds in delicate arpeggios. It is music as fragile as spun glass, created by a composer who must have possessed a spine of steel. Kinney spent more than thirty years teaching English and music at the then-segregated Lincoln High School in Sedalia, Missouri.
Welch—an internationally acclaimed pianist and pedagogue—serves on the piano faculty at York University in Toronto and was appointed as a piano instructor in the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Oscar Peterson Program during its inaugural 2022 season.
In Herstory, his sixth commercial recording, Welch brings both strength and nuance to interpretations of these sweet, somewhat old-fashioned parlor works, including music by Brazilian composer Chiquinha Gonzaga and Montague Ring. Florence Price’s study piece, “Etude,” surprises its virtuosity and sophistication. Welch notes that Price was sixty-two when she composed “Memory Mist” on July 8, 1949. “The title,” he writes, “suggests a stage in life when memory for many people is enshrouded in mist.”
Officially released on Juneteenth—Friday, June 19, 2026—Herstory is an enchanting tribute to women who led brave and complicated lives.
I invite you to open this box of musical doilies and admire their handiwork.
