© 2025 WXXI Public Broadcasting, 280 State St. Rochester, NY 14614, (585) 325-7500
Honoring the Past, Exploring the Present
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WXXI Classical 91.5 is in the process of building a resource of photos and brief biographical information about musicians of African descent. This resource is by no means complete, and we rely on you to help us build the site by sharing your information. Please click on the alphabetical groupings below to begin your discovery.

Valerie Capers, blind composer & jazz pianist

valcapmusic.wordpress.com

Bronx-born pianist, vocalist, educator, composer, and arranger who became the first visually-impaired person to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School of Music.

In 2015, Capers was appointed to New York City’s prestigious Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission by Mayor Bill DeBlasio. As an accomplished composer, her most noted works include Sing About Love, the critically acclaimed Christmas cantata produced by George Wein at Carnegie Hall; Sojourner, an operatorio based on the life of Sojourner Truth, performed and staged by the Opera Ebony Company of New York and commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA); and Song of the Seasons, a song cycle for voice, piano, and cello which was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institute and premiered in Washington.