The Pulteney Street SurveyWinter '24
Associate Professor of Music Charity Lofthouse and Eliyah Roberts ’24 have collaborated on several research projects and presented their work at the Theorizing African American Music conference in Denver in November.
A Crescendo in Exploration
With faculty support, Eliyah Roberts ’24 is taking her love of music, theatre and storytelling to new worlds.
BY COLIN SPENCER ’19
Since she arrived on campus, Eliyah Roberts ’24 has been harmonizing academic research and artistic energy. A double-major in Theatre and Music, she has authored research papers on music theory with her advisor, Associate Professor of Music Charity Lofthouse, performed in campus stage productions, and over the past year, worked closely with her Honors project advisor, Associate Professor of Music Mark Olivieri, to develop a deeply researched foundation for a passion project: a full-length Afrofuturist musical.
“I feel like I’m a storyteller above all,” says Roberts, “and the work I’ve done with Charity and Mark has helped me get my voice out there.”
Act I: Inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, Roberts challenged herself to write a musical during her first year at HWS. As a sophomore, she took Lofthouse’s course on 20th and 21st-century music theory, and when the course turned to current trends, Roberts already knew what she wanted to research.
Eliyah Roberts ’24 — pictured here during a recent ensemble performance — is applying her theatre talents and research skills toward writing an original musical, When Paradise Falls.
“[Charity’s] teaching has been so insightful and has influenced the way I have been thinking about musical structure and how music theory comes together with culture and what I want to communicate to the audience,” says Roberts.
Historical Context: Roberts began delving into scholarship and with Lofthouse’s guidance, unpacked the work of Florence Price, regarded as the first female African American symphonic composer, and contemporary artist Janelle Monáe. In her exploration of Black figures in historically white spaces, Roberts not only found resources to shape her musical but authored two research papers; her work on Monáe, which examines her compositions from an Afrofuturist perspective, was accepted to the Theorizing African American Music conference in Denver, where Roberts presented in November.
Lofthouse notes that her role has been to foster “Eliyah’s drive, Eliyah’s curiosity and Eliyah’s desire to analyze this music and say something substantive about it with this body of literature that is emergent and sophisticated.”
Words and Music: Throughout the summer, Roberts was on campus working with Lofthouse on their Price research project, and with Olivieri, composing the music for When Paradise Falls, an Afrofuturist-themed musical about a Black android girl who lives on the sun and dreams of exploring Earth. Drawing on her research, Roberts notes that the work is not only an exploration and refutation of negative stereotypes about “darker skinned people not wanting to be in the sun,” but a celebration of Black joy.
“When I write, I think about what I want to see. And I want to see an increase of Black individuals in fantasy and science fiction!” says Roberts. “So, my musical is for the weird Black girls, the shy Black girls, the fantastical Black girls, the dark-skinned Black girls, the goofy Black girls, the nerdy Black girls and the awkward Black girls. I just want to let them know that they can do and be anything!”
“I’m so proud Eliyah didn’t feel like she had to choose between her head and heart and that she feels confident, capable and supported getting her voice out there,” says Lofthouse.
During the fall semester, Roberts continued working with Olivieri to compose the music. Next up, bringing it to the stage.
Stay tuned.