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National Association Of Negro Musicians
The National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. is one of the oldest organizations in the United States dedicated to the preservation, encouragement, and advocacy of all genres of the music of African-Americans. NANM had its beginning on May 3, 1919 in Washington, D.C. at a temporary initial conference of “Negro” musicians under the leadership of Henry Grant and Nora Holt. In concert with the Chicago Music Association, its first national convention was held in Chicago, Illinois in the same year. The organization is dedicated to encouraging an inclusive musical culture throughout the country. Within NANM, members lend their support and influence—educators and professional musicians share their musical knowledge, amateurs and enthusiasts grow in their musical enjoyment, and people of all ages come together to share and participate in the musical experience. Since its inception, NANM has provided encouragement and support to thousands of African American musicians, many ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camille Nickerson
Camille Lucie Nickerson (March 30, 1888 – April 27, 1982) was an American pianist, composer, arranger, collector, and Howard University professor from 1926 to 1962. She was influenced by Creole folksongs of Louisiana, which she arranged and sang. Early life and education Nickerson was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the daughter of music professor and band director William Joseph Nickerson and his first wife, Aurelie Duconge. She was a member of her father's musical ensemble, the Nickerson Ladies’ Orchestra, from an early age. She earned a bachelor's degree in 1916 and a master's degree in 1932 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She continued her studies with support from a Rosenwald Fellowship. Her master's thesis at Oberlin was titled "Afro-Creole Music in Louisiana: A Thesis on the Plantation Songs Created by the Creole Negroes of Louisiana." She made further studies on a sabbatical in 1939 and 1940, at Columbia University and the Juilliard School. C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wesley Work III
John Wesley Work III (July 15, 1901 – May 17, 1967) was a composer, educator, choral director, musicologist and scholar of African-American folklore and music. Biography He was born on July 15, 1901, in Tullahoma, Tennessee, to a family of professional musicians. His grandfather, John Wesley Work, was a church choir director in Nashville, where he wrote and arranged music for his choirs. Some of his choristers were members of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. His father, John Wesley Work, Jr., was a singer, folksong collector and professor of music, Latin, and history at Fisk, and his mother, Agnes Haynes Work, was a singer who helped train the Fisk group. His uncle, Frederick Jerome Work, also collected and arranged folksongs, and his brother, Julian, became a professional musician and composer. Work began his musical training at the Fisk University Laboratory School, moving on to the Fisk High School and then the university, where he received a B.A. degree in 1923. After ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Lee Ragin
Derek Lee Ragin (born June 17, 1958) is an American countertenor. Biography">Derek Lee Ragin > Biographyallmusic Early life Derek Ragin was born in West Point, New York and grew up in Newark, New Jersey. He began his formal voice training with the Newark Boys Chorus, and studied as a piano and music education major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. While at Oberlin, he also took secondary voice lessons with Richard Anderson, and began his operatic career at Oberlin in Benjamin Britten's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' as Oberon. After leaving Oberlin, Ragin worked with singer Max van Egmond for a summer session at BPI and went to Europe to pursue his career in Baroque opera. Career Ragin gained fame by winning the 1983 Purcell-Britten Prize for Concert Singers in England, the Prix Spécial du Jury du Grand Prix Lyrique de Monte Carlo in 1988, and First Prize at the 35th ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1986. He had made his London recital debut at Wigmore Hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sanford Allen
Sanford Allen (born 1939) is an American classical violinist. At the age of 10, he began studying violin at the Juilliard School of Music and continued at the Mannes School of Music under Vera Fonaroff. He was the first African-American regular member of the Lewisohn Stadium Concerts Orchestra, joining in the summer of 1959. In 1962, shortly after winning the inaugural Young Concert Artists competition, he became the first full-time African-American violinist with the New York Philharmonic. After leaving the Philharmonic in 1977, Allen pursued a career as a soloist, teacher, and adviser on the arts. He also worked extensively recording film music. Allen has been married to Madhur Jaffrey, the Indian-born actress, food and travel writer, and television personality, since 1969.Contemporary Authors OnlineGale, 2008 Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. Awards * Federation of Music Clubs (1956) * Young Concert Artists competition (1961) * Kou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jessye Norman
Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but refused to be limited to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, Norman was associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Cassandre and Didon by Berlioz and Bartók's Judith. ''The New York Times'' music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound", and wrote that "it has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls." Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. Her career began in Europe, where she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, which led to a contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her operatic début came as Elisabeth in Wagner's ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shirley Verrett
Shirley Verrett (May 31, 1931 – November 5, 2010) was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who successfully transitioned into soprano roles, i.e. soprano sfogato. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s through the 1990s, particularly well known for singing the works of Verdi and Donizetti. Early life and education Born into an African-American family of devout Seventh-day Adventists in New Orleans, Louisiana, Verrett was raised in Los Angeles, California. She sang in church and showed early musical abilities, but initially a singing career was frowned upon by her family. Later Verrett went on to study with Anna Fitziu and with Marion Szekely Freschl at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1961 she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. International career In 1957, Verrett made her operatic debut in Britten's '' The Rape of Lucretia'' under her then-married name of Shirley Carter. She later used the name Shirley Verrett-Carter, and ultimately ju ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Sr. (March 19, 1921 – November 24, 2006) was an American operatic baritone and the first African-American man to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. His voice was described by critic Albert Goldberg in the ''Los Angeles Times'' as "a baritone of beautiful quality, even in all registers, and with a top that partakes of something of a tenor's ringing brilliance." He was the father of Grammy Award-winning vocalist Robert McFerrin Jr., better known as Bobby McFerrin. Early years Born in Marianna, Arkansas, McFerrin showed vocal talent at an early age, singing while still a boy soprano in a local church's gospel choir. As a young teenager he joined two of his siblings in a trio. The three accompanied their father on regional preaching engagements, singing gospel songs, hymns and spirituals. Reverend McFerrin did not wish his son to sing secular music, but in the end this wish was undone by his desire to give him the best possible education. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Shirley
George Irving Shirley (born April 18, 1934) is an American operatic tenor, and was the first African-American tenor to perform a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Early life Shirley was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He earned a bachelor's degree in music education from Wayne State University in 1955 and then was drafted into the Army, where he became the first Black member of the United States Army Chorus.Randye Jones"George Shirley (b. 1934)" Afrocentric Voices, retrieved June 10, 2014. He was also the first African American hired to teach music in Detroit high schools."Surviving Odds to Become a Star: George Shirley" '' |
Simon Estes
Simon Estes (born March 2, 1938) is an operatic bass-baritone of African-American descent who had a major international opera career beginning in the 1960s. He has sung at most of the world's major opera houses as well as in front of presidents, popes and internationally renowned figures and celebrities including Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Boris Yeltsin, Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. Notably, he was part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve widespread success and is viewed as part of a group of performers who were instrumental in helping to break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world. Early life and education Estes was born in Centerville, Iowa, the son of Ruth Jeter Estes and Simon Estes. His father was a coal-miner and his grandfather was a former slave who had been sold at auction for $500. Named for his father, Estes was called 'Billy' within his family circle to avoid confusion when addressing the two. One o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kermit Moore
Kermit Moore (March 11, 1929 – November 11, 2013) was an American conductor, cellist, and composer. Early life and education Of African American heritage, Moore was born in Akron, Ohio. While still in high school, Moore studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music. In Manhattan, Mr. Moore studied the cello with Felix Salmond at the Juilliard School while simultaneously studying for a master's degree in composition and musicology at New York University. Career Moore was one of the founders of the Symphony of the New World The Symphony of the New World was a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It was the first racially integrated orchestra in the United States. The Symphony gave its debut concert on 6 May 1965 at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Benjamin Steinb ..., the first racially integrated orchestra in the United States. Together with his wife Dorothy Rudd Moore and others, he founded the Society of Black Composers. He was also a member and board member of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adele Addison
Adele Addison (born July 24, 1925) is an American lyric soprano who was a figure in the classical music world during the 1950s and 1960s. Although she did appear in several operas, Addison spent most of her career performing in recital and concert. Her performances spanned a wide array of literature from the Baroque period to contemporary compositions. She is best remembered today as the singing voice for Bess (played by Dorothy Dandridge) in the 1959 movie, ''Porgy and Bess''. Known for her polished and fluent tone, Addison made a desirable Baroque vocal artist. She can be heard on numerous recordings, of which her Baroque performances are perhaps her best work. Many of her recordings were made with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. Early life and education Addison, who is African-American, was born on July 24, 1925, in New York City, moving to Springfield, Massachusetts as a child. Addison began dedicated vocal studies as a teenager and, follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natalie Hinderas
Natalie Leota Henderson Hinderas (June 15, 1927 – July 22, 1987) was an American pianist, composer and professor at Pennsylvania's Temple University. Hinderas was born in Oberlin, Ohio to a musical family. Her father (Abram) was a jazz pianist and her mother, Leota Palmer, was a classical pianist who taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She began playing at the age of three, with formal lessons (piano and violin) beginning at six years of age. A child prodigy, she gave her first full-length recital at eight years old. In 1945, she received her BS in Music from Oberlin Conservatory as their youngest student. Assuming the name Natalie Hinderas, she did her post-graduate work at the Juilliard School of Music with Olga Samaroff and at the Philadelphia Conservatory with Edward Steuermann. In 1954, she made her Town Hall debut, receiving critical acclaim. From this point in her career, she toured America, Europe, and the West Indies; with two tours of Africa and Asia spons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
