A00046 - William Levi Dawson, Composer of Negro Folk Symphony

*William Levi Dawson, composer of  Negro Folk Symphony was born in Anniston, Alabama.

Symphony No. 1, Negro Folk Symphony, by William Levi Dawson (1899-1990), was the first symphony on black folk themes by an African American composer to be performed by a major orchestra.  The symphony was substantially revised in 1952, after a visit to West Africa.  Born in Anniston, Alabama, Dawson began to compose when he was sixteen years old.  Under his leadership, the Tuskegee Choir became internationally renowned.

A00045 - Florence Price, First African American Woman Composer

*Florence Price, the first African American woman to compose a symphony that was performed by a major symphony orchestra, was born.

The Chicago Symphony, under the direction of Frederick Stock, first played Symphony in E minor by Florence Price (1888 - 1953) at the Chicago World Fair.  The first African American woman to achieve distinction as a composer, Price was a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in 1906, and won her first Harmon prize for composition in 1925. 

A00044 - Caterina Jarboro, First African American to Sing with the Chicago Opera Company

*Caterina Jarboro, the first African American to sing with the Chicago Opera Company, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Caterina Jarboro (1903-1986) sang the title role in Aida with the Chicago Opera Company in New York City in 1933.  Born Catherine Yarboro in Wilmington, North Carolina, she began her career in Broadway musicals, including Shuffle Along (1921) and Running Wild (1923).

A00043 - Don Redman, First African American Orchestra Leader

Don (Donald Matthew) Redman (1900-1964), a jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and arranger, was the first African American orchestra leader to have a sponsored radio series.  He was a pioneer jazz arranger-composer and contributed significantly to the development of the big-band sound of the 1920s and 1930s.  A child prodigy, Redman was born in Piedmont, West Virginia, and studied at music conservatories in Boston and Detroit.

A00042 - William Grant Still, Symphony Composer

Born in Woodville, Mississippi, William Grant Still (1895-1978) studied at Wilberforce University, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the New England Conservatory of Music.  Still worked in a great variety of musical settings, from playing in dance and theater orchestras, to supplying arrangements of popular music for African American show people, and was a prolific composer in the art-music tradition.  In 1936, Still was the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and became the first African American to have an opera performed by a major opera company in 1949, when New York City Opera put on Troubled Island.

A00041 - Thomas Dorsey, Father of Gospel

From this endorsement followed the first choruses, the first publishing houses, the first professional organizations, and the first paid gospel concerts.  Thomas Dorsey (1899-1993), the "Father of Gospel," founded the first gospel choir in the world with Theodore Frye at Chicago's Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1931.  Dorsey later established the first music publishing firm dedicated only to gospel music in 1932.  The 1930 endorsement of gospel music b the Baptist convention, which had been carried away by Dorsey's "If You See My Savior," called public attention to a major change that had been taking place in the music of black churches. The 1930 endorsement is often considered the starting point for the history of gospel music.

A00040 - Blanche Calloway, Bandleader

Blanche Calloway (1902-1973) was one of the most successful bandleaders of the 1930s.  For a while, she and her brother, Cab Calloway, had their own act.  

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she studied at Morgan State College, and later moved to Miami, Florida, where she became the first woman disk jockey on American radio.  Calloway toured from 1931 to 1944 with "The 12 Clouds of Joy" as a singer, dancer, and conductor.

A00039 - Eva Jessye, Choir Director

Eva Jessye (1895-1992) was a composer, musician, choral director, educator, writer, and actress, became the first African American woman to achieve acclaim as director of a professional choral group.  The Eva Jessye Choir performed regularly at the Capital Theater in New York City, from 1926 to 1929.  Jessye directed the choir in Hollywood's first African American musical, Hallelujah, in 1929.  She was born in Coffeyville, Kansas, graduated from Western University (Quindaro, Kansas), and later attended Langston University in Oklahoma.  

A00038 - DeFord Bailey, Grand Ole Opry Performer

DeFord Bailey, Sr. (1899-1982), a harmonica player, became the first African American musician to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 26, 1924.  Originally called the "The Barn Dance", the show's name was changed to "The Grand Ole Opry" in the autumn of 1927.  Bailey was perhaps the first African American heard on nationwide radio.  The next year, he was the first African American to have a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee.  Bailey recorded eight sides for RCA.  Known for his train sounds, Bailey was one of the most influential harmonica players in blues and country music, and one of the most popular performers in the first fifteen years of the Opry, the longest running radio show in the country.  Bailey was fired in 1941 as a by-result of the dispute between ASCAP and the newly formed BMI over payment for music played on the radio.  In 1991, a memorial marker was erected near Bailey's birthsite in Wilson County, Tennessee.