Download FAMOUS BLACK COMPOSERS

FAMOUS BLACK
COMPOSERS
THEN … AND … NOW!
From African Slave to
Composer & Author Born on a
Slave Ship Near Guinea, West
Africa
Afro-British
Composer, Conductor
& Professor
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
• Born on August 15, 1875 in
London, England. His mother
was an English woman named
Alice Hare. His father was
Daniel Peter Taylor, a doctor
and a native of Sierra Leone.
• Young Samuel was raised by
his English mother and
stepfather, but his musical
education was overseen by
Col. Herbert A. Walters, who
belonged to the church choir
in which the boy sang. Samuel
also studied violin with a local
musician as a child.
When he was only sixteen Samuel published his anthem
In Thee, O Lord, another four following while he was still
in his mid-teens.
•
•
Coleridge-Taylor's second major
composition of 1898 was his musical
Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, for which
he is best known. The work is a
setting of verses from Song of
Hiawatha by the American poet Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow. He conducted
its premier to great acclaim. The
work was staged hundreds of times in
the United Kingdom alone during the
next 15 years.
The composer credited the Fisk
Jubilee Singers and their European
tours with introducing him to African
American spirituals. He also collected
traditional songs of Africans and
African Americans from other sources
for the work which became his 24
Negro Melodies
Coleridge-Taylor took on more and more teaching positions
throughout his career, beginning in 1895. At the time of his
death he was a Lecturer at Croydon Conservatoire, and
Professor of Composition at Trinity College of Music, Crystal
Palace School of Art and Music, and Guildhall School of Music.
•
•
On September 1, 1912 Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor died of
pneumonia complicated by
exhaustion from overwork. He
was just 37 years old.
Although he took on an excessive
work load of composing,
conducting and teaching, he still
had difficulty supporting his
family. When he published a work
of music he received only a small
one-time payment from the
publisher. The circumstances of
his death contributed greatly to
the subsequent adoption of a
system of royalties for composers
in the U.K.
African American Composer,
Pianist & Bandleader
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
• African American composer,
pianist and jazz band
leader. He was born into a
middle-class family in
Washington, D.C. on April 29,
1899.
• Young Edward began
studying the piano at age
seven. He was about 17
years old when he began
playing piano
professionally. By age 20
he was a bandleader,
playing at social events.
In the fall of 1927 the Ellington orchestra secured a longterm gig at the Cotton Club, New York City's most
prestigious nightclub, which was wired to permit "live"
remote radio broadcasts that gave
Ellington nationwide recognition.
• Ellington and his orchestra
toured the U.S. frequently
during the 1930s and
enjoyed success in Europe
during tours there in 1933
and 1939.
• In 1943 Ellington and his
orchestra performed at New
York's legendary Carnegie
Hall. The program included
a ground-breaking 44minute work entitled Black,
Brown, and Beige: A Tone
Parallel to the History of the
American Negro.
• Ellington began exploring spiritual
themes with his Concert of Sacred
Music in 1965.
• On the occasion of his 70th
birthday party in 1969 he was
given the Medal of Freedom by
President Richard Nixon. In 1973
Ellington was diagnosed with lung
cancer. Even after he went into a
hospital the following year he kept
composing music. Ellington passed
away in New York City on May 24,
1974.
Afro-Cuban Composer, Conductor &
Professor Contemporary Music for
Concert, Dance & Opera
She was born in Havana, Cuba on May 14,
1943, she is of mixed French, Spanish, Chinese,
African, and Cuban heritage.
• She began studying piano at
age four and attended Carlos
Alfredo Peyrellade
Conservatory and the
National Conservatory in her
native Havana, with
additional degree work in
business administration.
• Originally pianist for Arthur
Mitchell’s dance classes, she
joined him as co-founder in
1969 of the Dance Theater
of Harlem and was the first
music director (conductor
and composer) for that
ensemble.
• León's first ballet: Tones,
Dougla (with Geoffrey
Holder, and Spiritual Suite
• She joined the faculty at
Brooklyn College (where she
was named Tow
Distinguished Professor
• Ms. León joined forces with
Nobel Prize-winner Wole
Soyinka with whom she
collaborated on her awardwinning opera “Scourge of
Hyacinths”.
A Great Tribute to a Great Composer,
March 13, 1957 - Feb. 11, 2003
Hogan was born in New Orleans, Louisana
•
He went on to graduate
from the New Orleans
Center for Creative Arts
(NOCCA) and Oberlin
Conservatory of Music in
Ohio. He also studied at
New York's Juilliard School
of Music and Louisana State
University in Baton Rouge.
• one of the most
celebrated directors and
masters of spirituals who
created dozens of new
original arrangements of
classic spirituals, and
formed several choirs
that performed them
with new vitality.
• With over 70 published
works, Hogan's
arrangements have
become staples in the
repertoires of high
school, college, church,
community and
professional choirs
worldwide.
• Hogan died on Feb. 11,
2003 at age 45 from a brain
tumor.