Anita Patti Brown | |
|---|---|
 Anita Patti Brown, from a 1911 newspaper | |
| Born | Patsie Bush or Patsie Dean about 1870 Georgia, US |
| Died | December 27, 1950 (aged about 80) Chicago, Illinois, US |
| Occupation | Singer |
| Years active | 1900s-1930s |
Anita Patti Brown (born about 1870, died December 27, 1950) was an American concert singer. She was sometimes billed as "the Bronze Tetrazzini". [1]
Patsie Bush [2] or Patsie Dean [3] was born in Georgia, and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. [4] [5] She trained as a singer in Chicago, [6] and later studied in Europe with Victor Beigel. [7]
Brown made her Chicago debut in 1903, [8] at the Chicago Opera House. She sang in Nashville in 1909, assisted by the Fisk Quartette. [9] She was described as "one of the most noted singers of the Race" when she appeared in Pittsburgh in 1911. [10] She sang at a benefit concert in Alabama in 1913. [11] In 1913 she appeared at the annual Atlanta Colored Music Festival, as featured soloist alongside Roland Hayes. [12] In 1914 she sang in a concert of Black composers in Chicago, sharing the bill with pianist Robert Nathaniel Dett and others. [13]
Brown sang in New York and Dallas in 1915. [14] She toured in South America [15] and the British West Indies, [16] and made a recording for Victor, in 1916. [17] She gave a concert at Poro College in St. Louis in 1918, [18] and after World War I toured with a military band. [4] She sang at church events in Spokane in 1921 [19] and 1923. [20] Her 1922 Los Angeles appearance prompted a reviewer to note that she was "a genuine prima donna" with "a dulcet voice of rare soprano altitude". [21] She sang in Chattanooga in 1929. [2] In 1934, she was featured at the annual meeting of the National Association of Negro Musicians, held in Pittsburgh. [22]
In 1920, Brown began "Patti's Brazilian Toilette Luxuries", a mail-order business selling cosmetics and perfume. [23] [24] In 1923, she successfully sued a Chicago drug store for refusing her service. [25] In the 1930s, she taught voice students at her Chicago studio. [3]
Patsie Bush (or Patsie Dean) married Chicago choral director Arthur A. Brown. She died at home in Chicago in 1950, about 80 years old, [4] [8] though her Chicago Tribune obituary gave her age as 65 years. [26]
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