CAPERS, Valerie

Valerie Capers (b. 1935) is an American pianist, composer, arranger and music educator whose work bridges jazz, classical music, blues and gospel. Born in New York City, she became blind at the age of six and received her early musical education at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. She later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, becoming its first blind graduate.
Initially trained in classical music, Capers subsequently turned toward jazz and began composing at the encouragement of her brother, saxophonist Bobby Capers. Her major works include the large-scale Christmas cantata Sing About Love, which combines jazz, gospel, blues and classical idioms; Song of the Seasons, a classically oriented song cycle; and Sojourner, an “operatorio”—her own term for a synthesis of opera and oratorio—based on the life of abolitionist and women’s-rights activist Sojourner Truth. She also composed Portraits in Jazz, a widely used collection of pedagogical piano pieces introducing classically trained students to the styles of major jazz musicians. Alongside her work as a composer and performer, Capers played an important role in jazz education and served as chair of the Music Department at Bronx