Celebrating Black Classical Musicians

From left to right: Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Francis Johnson, Florence Price, George Walker, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Black musicians have helped define modern music of all genres, including jazz, blues, rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, hip hop, and rap. Musicians like Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, B. B. King, Jimi Hendrix, and Aretha Franklin are some of the most well-known musicians of the  20th and 21st centuries. Vocal groups and artists associated with Motown Records also shaped the sound of modern popular music.

Classical musicians of color are less widely known, but their contributions are equally important.

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745-1799)

Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a free man of color and contemporary of Mozart, was a virtuoso violinist and composer. He was born in the French colony of Guadeloupe where his father was a wealthy, white plantation owner and his mother was one of the Senegalese people he kept enslaved. He moved to France at the age of seven where he was educated and received formal music and musical composition training.

He composed an array of music, most notably comedic operas. He was the first composer of African descent whose music was performed widely throughout Europe. However, as a conductor and performer, he faced racism from musicians who refused to perform under his direction.

Francis Johnson (1792-1844)

Francis Johnson was a free Black man living in Philadelphia when slavery was legal in southern states. A violin virtuoso, Johnson was a composer who taught both black and white students. In 1818, he became the first African American to have a composition published as sheet music and went on to publish over 200 compositions. In 1837, Johnson became the first African American to tour Europe with his band. Queen Victoria, a noted abolitionist, invited him to perform at  Buckingham Palace. 

Upon their return from Europe, Johnson and his band introduced waltzes by Johann Strauss II and helped develop a style of music that later became known as the popular classical “pops” style. Johnson also included white musicians in his band, leading to some of the first interracial musical performances in the United States. 

Florence Beatrice Price (1887-1953)

Florence Price, a classically trained pianist and organist, was the first African-American woman recognized as a symphonic composer and the first to have a composition performed by a major orchestra. Price was also an accomplished musician, performing with orchestras and as an accompanist to silent films. She also arranged music for the WGN Radio Orchestra and composed jingles for radio. 

In 1933, the Chicago Symphony premiered her Symphony in E Minor at the Chicago Century of Progress World’s Fair.

Price composed over 300 works, including four symphonies, as well as choral works, chamber music, and music for solo instruments. In 1940, she was inducted into the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.

George Walker (1922-2018)

George Walker was an accomplished pianist, organist and composer. He is often referred to as the “Dean of African American Composers”, because of his many firsts. Most notably, he was the first African American composer to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for his composition Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra. He published more than 90 works and received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Walker was the first African American to graduate from Curtis. While there, he composed his first string quartet, originally titled Lament and dedicated to his maternal grandmother, a formerly enslaved person. It was renamed Lyric for Strings and remains one of his most famous compositions.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (1999 - )

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a renowned British cellist who won the 2016 BBC Young Musician Award and has continued to impress audiences ever since. The BBC has described him as “the first cellist ever to reach the Top 10 of the UK album chart." 

He is one of seven children in a musically gifted family who appeared together on Britain’s Got Talent and received a standing ovation for their performance. Kanneh-Mason studied with Hannah Roberts at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has performed with the Chineke! Orchestra, founded by Chi-chi Nwanoku to support black and minority ethnic classical musicians. 

In 2016, Kanneh-Mason told The Guardian's Tom Service:

“Chineke! is a really inspiring project. I rarely go to a concert and see that kind of diversity in the orchestra. Or in the audience. Having the orchestra will definitely change the culture. It's so important we're celebrating music by black composers, too, like the piece by Chevalier de Saint-Georges we're playing in September.”

He has performed twice at the BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) and at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. He has produced albums, performed around the world, published a book, and has been the subject of a documentary. We will certainly hear more from Sheku Kanneh-Mason in the years to come.

These are just a few examples of Black musicians and their contributions to classical music. There are many other composers, performers, soloists and conductors of color whose work is equally important. From France in the 1700s through the current day, these musicians faced racism from audiences and fellow musicians, but they went on to make their mark and forge a path for the next generation to follow. Music as an art has benefited from all of them!