Overview of the Item
Julieanna Richardson
Scott Stearns
Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi
May 31, 2000
5 Betacam SP videocassettes, 1 half-Hollinger box containing (NUMBER) folders of accompanying materials.
(ABSTRACT)
A2000.002
The interviews and records are in English
Biographical Note
Composer, poet and artist Regina Harris Baiocchi received an education as eclectic as her talents. She studied music at DePaul University, Roosevelt University, Illinois Institute of Design and New York University. Baiocchi writes instrumental and vocal music for opera, libretti and concertos. Among her distinctive compositions is Gbeldahoven: No One's Child, a one-act opera written in 1996. In 1997, she produced Dreamhoppers, another one-act opera that has been performed widely. Both works make use of varied musical traditions in order to express the multicultural nature of music. For Baiocchi, it is through music that the greatest strides in civil rights and cultural tolerance have been and will continue to be made.
Baiocchi's compositions have been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, as well as at festivals nationwide. African Hands, an award-winning percussion concerto, was performed by the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra. Her opera Good News Falls Gently was performed in 1995 at the Festival Incontri Musicali in Rome, Italy. In 1998, she served as artistic director of the Roots & Wings concert at Chicago's prestigious Ravinia Festival.
Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers®
Scope and Contents
This life oral history interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi was conducted by Julieanna Richardson on 2000-5-31 in Residence of Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, Chicago, Illinois and is recorded on 5 30-minute Betacam SP videocassettes. Access copies exist on Betacam SP, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1. The interview contains information on (COMPLETE ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW). Accompanying materials in the collection include Regina A. Harris Baiocchi's correspondence with The HistoryMakers® related to the interview; a copy of the signed release form and the production report; the biographical information used by the interviewer to prepare for the interview (DETAILS); paper copies of the interview transcripts, 3 1/2" floppy disks with electronic copies of the transcripts; selected quotes for video clips; photocopies of photographs captured on video; XML files with metadata created in editing and cataloguing the interview for The HistoryMakers Digital Video Library; and paper copies of these XML files.
Accompanying Material
Accompanying materials: Accompanying materials are filed in (NUMBER) folders in a half-Hollinger box and shelved at The HistoryMakers® Archives and Collection Library by accession number, separately from the videos.
Index Terms
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access terms.
Contributors:
Baiocchi, Regina A. Harris, 1956-
Richardson, Julieanna
Stearns, Scott
Persons:
(PERSONS)
Corporate Bodies:
(CORPORATE BODIES)
Family Names:
Baiocchi
Places:
(PLACES)
Subjects:
(SUBJECTS)
Document Types:
Video oral history interview
Titles:
The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi
Restrictions on Access
Access to paper records is restricted. Other restrictions may be applied on a case-by-case basis.
Restrictions on Use
All use of materials must be pre-approved by The HistoryMakers® and appropriate credit must be given. All use credits must be pre-approved by The HistoryMakers®. Copyright is held by The HistoryMakers®.
Location of Originals
Betacam, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1 access copies are held for in-house use at The HistoryMakers®; Betacam SP, VHS and DVD playback hardware is provided for in-house viewing of the access copies; MPEG-1 copies are searchable and viewable via a digital video database.
Preferred Citation
The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, May 31, 2000. The HistoryMakers® African American Video Oral History Collection, 1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois.
Detailed Description/Tape Listings
Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, Tape 1, May 31, 2000, TRT: 00:30:38.
Raised in Chicago, Illinois, Regina A. Harris Baiocchi discusses her family's roots in the American South--specifically, Kentucky and Tennessee. Her father and mother migrated north in search of better vocational opportunities and fewer racist encounters. Her parents were always available to Baiocchi and her seven siblings--four sisters and three brothers. Baiocci's parents encouraged her and her siblings' interest in the arts. Baiocchi tells stories of her grandparents' lives in the racist American South. She also shares anecdotes about her grandfather taking her around Chicago when she was a young girl. Finally, Baiocchi recounts stories that reveal her family's heritage; she further speculates as to her ethnic descent.
Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, Tape 2, May 31, 2000, TRT: 00:30:57.
Regina A. Harris Baiocchi discusses her ethnic heritage and specifically describes what she thinks is a mixture of West African, Native American and Italian ancestry. She describes being particularly interested in her family's linguistic history; she compares the dialect that members of her family speak to the patois she encountered in Jamaica. She then reveals that her great-grandmother survived slavery and lived to recount her experiences. Baiocchi goes on to describe each of her seven siblings as well as their children, her nieces and nephews. She and each of her siblings were expected to learn to play an instrument in their youth. Baiocchi discusses her experiences--both negative and positive--in a broad range of schools, from Chicago public schools to a Catholic academy in Wisconsin. Chicago's Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, with its extensive music resources, proved to be an inspirational place for young Regina A. Harris Baiocchi. Nevertheless, her musical performance debut was an unnerving experience.
Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, Tape 3, May 31, 2000, TRT: 00:31:01.
Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, her mother's favorite child, describes that she was an introspective, melancholy young girl with a love of reading. After visiting Grambling State University, she recognized that she was more interested in an urban college campus. She completed her undergraduate degree in music at Chicago's Roosevelt University. Though the music department lacked diversity--in terms of race and gender--and her curriculum presented a few challenges, the experience made Baiocchi stronger. She credits her parents, and specifically her father, with giving her the necessary support and guidance throughout her undergraduate work. Upon graduation, Baiocchi's father suggested that she teach math and science in a local school. Baiocchi met obstacles in this new environment; many of her students, Haitian immigrants, did not speak English. After seven years of teaching, Baiocchi pursued a public relations post at a Chicago seminary. At the same time she began to write an opera, spawned from one musical composition she had created. The opera considers the careers of two influential African American authors, Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes. Baiocchi received the necessary funding and the opera enjoyed considerable success; it was performed twice at influential Chicago institutions.
Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, Tape 4, May 31, 2000, TRT: 00:29:16.
Composer and author Regina A. Harris Baiocchi created a piece entitled 'Against The Odds,' or 'O.D.S.,' Operation Desert Storm, that brought her war poetry and musical composition together. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, an institution that she credits as being integral to her career, put on the performance. The Detroit Symphony Orchestra later held a competition for African American composers that Baiocchi and two others won. She describes that she is particularly highly sought after during Black History Month. Baiocchi has faced rejection in her writing career. She has fundraised and produced her own work and she plans to publish her own novels and poetry, in response. Baiocchi cites jazz musician, Hale Smith; jazz singer, Betty Carter; and jazz pianist, Alan Swain as her most powerful influences. Baiocchi has faced many obstacles in completing her opera, set around writer/anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, and poet, Langston Hughes. Baiocchi accepts the complications of the music and publishing industries and finds inspiration in Betty Carter, the trailblazing, self-released jazz singer. Baiocchi describes the thirty year history that she has with her white husband, Greg Baiocchi, and hopes that children are in their future.
Video Oral History Interview with Regina A. Harris Baiocchi, Tape 5, May 31, 2000, TRT: 00:13:57.
This tape contains photographs of Regina A. Harris Baiocchi's family, friends and publicity shots.