Eva Jessye (January 20, 1895 – February 21, 1992) was an American conductor and composer who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor. She is notable as a choral conductor during the
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...
. She created her own choral group which featured widely in performance. Her professional influence extended for decades through her teaching as well. Her accomplishments in this field were historic for any woman. She collaborated in productions of groundbreaking works, directing her choir and working with
Virgil Thomson and
Gertrude Stein on ''
Four Saints in Three Acts'' (1933), and serving as musical director with
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...
on his innovative opera ''
Porgy and Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...
'' (1935).
Early life and education
Eva Jessye was born January 20, 1895, in
Coffeyville, Kansas. She was educated at
Western University, a
historically black university in Kansas, and
Langston University in Oklahoma. She later studied privately with
Will Marion Cook in New York City.
In 1919, Jessye began work as the choir director at
Morgan State College in Baltimore. She returned west for a time to teach at an
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...
school in Oklahoma. In 1926, she went back east to Baltimore, where she began to perform regularly with her group, the "Eva Jessye Choir". She had first named them the "Original Dixie Jubilee Singers", but many groups began to appropriate the name, Dixie Jubilee Singers, so she changed hers.
She and the group moved to New York, where they appeared frequently in the stage show at the
Capitol Theatre, where
Eugene Ormandy conducted the orchestra. They were also frequent performers on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
and
WOR radio in New York in the 1920s and 1930s. They recorded on Brunswick,
Columbia, and Cameo records in the 1920s. In 1929, Jessye went to
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
as the choral director for the
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
film ''
Hallelujah'', which had an all-black cast directed by
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor ( ; February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose 67-year film-making career successfully spanned the silent and sound eras. His works are distinguished by a vivid, ...
. She received praise from members of the black press when she spoke out against the discriminatory practices that she endured while on the set for this film.
In New York, Jessye worked with creative multi-racial teams in groundbreaking productions that experimented with form, music and stories. In 1933, she directed her choir in
Virgil Thomson's and
Gertrude Stein's opera, ''
Four Saints in Three Acts'', produced as a
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American and British English spelling differences), many of the List of ...
work. According to
Steven Watson, the Eva Jessye Choir's participation in ''Four Saints'', represented a musical and economic breakthrough for African-American singers at the time.
[ Steven Watson, ''Prepare For Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Musical Modernism'', (New York: Random House, 1998), 245.] Watson quotes Jessye, describing ''Four Saints'' as "quite a departure, because up to that time, the only opportunities involved things like 'Swanee River', or 'That's Why Darkies Are Born', or 'Old Black Joe'. They called that 'our music', and thought we could sing those things only by the gift of God, and if God hadn't given us that gift, we wouldn't have any at all ... With this opera, we had to step on fresh ground, something foreign to our nature completely."
Jessye also demanded that her singers be paid for rehearsal, "fighting a deeply ingrained system of discriminatory salaries, rampant kickbacks, and nonpayment of choruses during rehearsals", writes Watson.
In 1935,
George Gershwin
George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular music, popular and classical music. Among his best-known works are the songs "Swan ...
chose her as his music director for his opera ''
Porgy and Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...
''.
In 1927, Jessye published ''My Spirituals'', a collection of her arrangements of spirituals, together with stories about growing up in southeast Kansas.
Jessye also composed her own choral works:
* ''The Life of Christ in Negro Spirituals'' (1931);
* ''Paradise Lost and Regained'' (1934), a folk
oratorio
An oratorio () is a musical composition with dramatic or narrative text for choir, soloists and orchestra or other ensemble.
Similar to opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguisha ...
; and
* ''The Chronicle of Job'' (1936).
These are combined spirituals, religious narrative or biblical text, and her orchestral compositions.
An active supporter of the
civil rights movement, Jessye and her choir participated in the 1963
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (commonly known as the March on Washington or the Great March on Washington) was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...
.
Active into her 80s, she taught at
Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, Kansas), and the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
. She donated her extensive collection of books, scores, artwork, and other materials to the University of Michigan, which became the basis of the university's African American Music Collection. Dr. Jessye was a member of
Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.
Legacy and honors
Shortly before her death in
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
, she established the Eva Jessye African-American Music Collection at the University of Michigan. She left most of her personal papers to Pittsburg State University in Kansas.
References
Further reading
*
* Eva Jessye, ''My Spirituals''. Robbins-Engel, 1927.
*
Eileen Southern, ''The Music of Black Americans: A History''. W. W. Norton & Company; 3rd ed.
External links
*
"Eva Jessye Collection, 1885–1994" Pittsburg State University
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jessye, Eva
1895 births
1992 deaths
20th-century African-American academics
20th-century African-American women singers
20th-century American women singers
20th-century American academics
20th-century American women composers
20th-century American classical composers
African-American classical composers
African-American women academics
African-American women classical composers
American choral conductors
American women academics
American women classical composers
Musicians from Coffeyville, Kansas
Pupils of Percy Goetschius
University of Michigan faculty