Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression

Last updated

Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression was a private music academy founded by Harriet Gibbs Marshall in 1903 in Washington, D.C. to train African Americans in music. [1] [2] The Conservatory remained open until 1960 making it the longest operating music school for African Americans. [1] [2]

History and productions

After working teaching music in various places in the country Gibbs, not yet married, came to Washington, DC, initially employed in the public school system. [3] She founded the Washington Conservatory of Music in 1903. It focused on classical European music. [1]

In Spring 1905 the Conservatory was noted in the newspapers with a concert given by its students - enrollment was noted at over 160. [4] In the Fall of 1905 Gibbs was noted as director of the music among the colored schools of DC as well as president of the Conservatory - and in September Gibbs and friends took a trip to Europe – London, Paris and the countryside of France – joined by her sister, Ida Hunt, noted as the wife of the US consul to Madagascar. [5] On return from her 9 month stay in Europe she noted that colored students attending German or French music schools were well received and noted Hazel Harrison as had a recent debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. [6] Newly married in Spring 1906, Gibbs wed Napoleon Bonaparte Marshall, a graduate of Harvard University (A.B. 1897) and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1900). [7] As was the custom of the time, as a married woman, she at first resigned her employment with the school system, [8] however there was an attempt to withdraw the resignation that failed despite vocal support from an unnamed group of people. [9] The closing of the Conservatory school year had its own recital. [10]

In the Fall of 1906 advertisements for the Conservatory began calling it the "Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression" with 14 faculty. [11] Newspaper coverage in and beyond DC of the new year noted its history to 1903, that it now had more than 600 students since its founding, and reviewed the faculty in some depth - including staff that would later be officers of the institution as well as her husband. [12] In 1910 Illinois federal Representative Martin B. Madden handed out the diplomas for the graduates of the Conservancy. [13] Several columns of the Washington Bee covered the event. [14]

In 1911 advertising for the Conservatory appeared in The Crisis as well as St. Paul newspapers. [15] Marshall also took a trip around promoting the school including to Saint Louis, Missouri, [16] and coverage appeared in The Pittsburgh Courier underscoring its students came from all races and sexes and was called unique for doing so and had now had some 1400 students to date coming from many states though only 23 had stayed on through graduating with a diploma. [17] The Courier coverage also noted scholarships had been given and listed the donors who had covered the scholarships. [17] The officers of the school were noted and included George William Cook of Howard University, and Fisk University graduate and past president of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society, "Lewis" (Louis) G. Gregory, as well as others [15] [18] [17] An elocution program was added. [19] That year's commencement gained additional coverage around the country. [20] A Conservatory recital was held in February, 1912. [21] In September Marshall took a trip in the West again, [22] this time including Chicago and Detroit. [23]

The Conservancy produced Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado in the Howard Theater in February 1913. [24] That spring the Conservatory produced a commencement performance where most of the compositions were from the pupils themselves many of whom were colored. [25] In December a Baháʼí meeting was hosted at the conservancy - attending included Laura Clifford Barney and her husband, Charles Mason Remey and others. [26]

In 1917 Marshall and Gregory were mentioned giving some scholarships. [27]

In 1920 Marshall began a campaign to raise funds for a national conservancy which would include negro music. [28] In April 1921 the Conservancy produced a program for a fundraiser that covered periods of "negro music and drama" in New York. [29] Marshall returned to the pursuit of a national conservancy in April 1922, calling together various leaders in black music and a followup production of the "negro music and drama" was scheduled for May. [30] Walter Damrosch was listed as specifically supporting the idea of the national conservatory. [31] A Conservancy student recital followed in May. [32] Broader recognition of respect for negro music was summarized including Marshall's work in 1922. [33] Marshall was approaching having something for a national conservancy set up in New York by May 1924, [34] but instead she went to Haiti with her husband's work, making a brief return trip in August, [35] as he was appointed to a commission to investigate abuses during the United States occupation of Haiti. [36] They returned by February 1927. [37] By 1934 Marshall was acknowledged as director of the Conservancy again. [38]

Marshall died on February 21, 1941, in Washington, D.C. [39] [40] She bequeathed all her inheritance to the Washington Conservancy. [41]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clarence Cameron White</span> Musical artist

Clarence Cameron White was an American neoromantic composer and concert violinist. Dramatic works by the composer were his best-known, such as the incidental music for the play Tambour and the opera Ouanga. During the first decades of the twentieth century, White was considered the foremost black violinist. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camille Nickerson</span>

Camille Lucie Nickerson 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis George Gregory</span> American Baháí

Louis George Gregory was a prominent American member of the Baháʼí Faith who was devoted to its expansion in the United States and elsewhere. He traveled especially in the South to spread the word about it. In 1922 he was the first African American elected to the nine-member National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada. He was repeatedly re-elected to that position, leading a generation and more of followers. He also worked to prosyletize the faith to Central and South America.

<i>Boston Evening Transcript</i> Daily newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Elsie Austin</span> American diplomat

Helen Elsie Austin, known as H. Elsie Austin as an adult, was an American attorney, civil rights leader, and diplomat from the Midwest. From 1960 to 1970, she served for 10 years with the United States Information Agency (USIA) on various cultural projects in Africa. The first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Cincinnati School of Law, Austin was appointed in 1937 as an assistant attorney general in Ohio. She was the first black and the first woman to hold this position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Cardwell Dawson</span> American opera singer

Mary Lucinda Cardwell Dawson (1894-1962) was an American musician and teacher and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howie Shanks</span> American baseball outfielder (1890–1941)

Howard Samuel Shanks was an American professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1912 to 1925 for the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox, and New York Yankees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Édouard Dethier</span>

Edouard Charles Louis Dethier was a Belgian classical violinist and teacher. He was a soloist with the New York Philharmonic and New York Symphony orchestras as well as extensively touring the United States and Canada as a recitalist. From 1906, he also taught violin at the Juilliard School. Amongst his many distinguished pupils there was Robert Mann. He was the brother of Gaston Dethier, a noted organist and pianist, and likewise a teacher at Juilliard for many years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aubrey Pankey</span> American-born baritone

Aubrey W. Pankey was an American-born baritone and noted Lieder singer in 1930s Germany. In 1956 he permanently emigrated to East Germany under the growing shadow of McCarthyism together with his companion Fania Fénelon. He was the first American to sing in the People's Republic of China in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Gibbs Marshall</span> African-American musician, writer, and educator

Harriet Gibbs Marshall was an American pianist, writer, and educator of music. She is best known for opening the Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression in 1903 in Washington, D.C.

Richard E. S. Toomey was a soldier, poet, civil servant, and lawyer in Washington, DC and Miami, Florida. His poetry gained popularity in the early 1900s and he was called "The Soldier Poet". He was well known in Washington, DC, and friends with Paul Laurence Dunbar. Outside of poetry, he served in the Spanish–American War and became a popular speaker in political and social causes in DC. He graduated from Howard University Law School in Washington DC in 1906. In 1913, he moved to Miami, where he was Miami's first black attorney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremiah Daniel Baltimore</span> African-American engineer and educator (1852–1929)

Jeremiah Daniel Baltimore was an engineer and educator in Washington, DC. For many years, he was an engineer in the service of the United States Navy and served as chief engineer at the Freedmen's Hospital. He was also a teacher of mechanics, and was responsible for mechanical instruction in the African American schools in the city from 1890 to 1922. He was on the trial board of the Naval battleship USS Texas (1892) and was among the organizers and officers of the Potomac Hospital and Training School. In 1903 he was elected a member of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. In 1915 he was made member of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Art, Manufactures, and Commerce of London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatrice Irwin</span> Actress, poet and designer

Beatrice Irwin was an actress, poet, designer and promoter of the Baháʼí Faith. Born Alice Beatrice Simpson, she took Beatrice Irwin as her stage name and later adopted it as her real name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia Lampton</span>

Cornelia Derrick Lampton, later Cornelia Lampton Dawson, was an American pianist and music educator. She was the first woman to earn a bachelor's degree in music at Howard University.

Maria Montana was an American opera singer often called either a coloratura or lyric soprano who had training in the Toronto Conservatory of Music and the American Conservancy of Music in Fontainebleau, France. She performed a few years in France and Italy in the earlier 1920s where she picked up the stage name, and then began a prolonged career touring in America soon with the National Music League, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, broadcasts on the NBC Radio Network, and other orchestras across the United States, often returning to Montana, before semi-retiring in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1940. By then she regularly used her stage name as her everyday name and became visible associating with the Baháʼí Faith by 1942. While occasionally performing, she also took part in various projects including meetings for the religion's teachings on the oneness of humanity, was elected as a Minnesota state delegate to the national Baháʼí convention for 1945, voted by mail, at which Helen Elsie Austin was elected as one of the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baháʼí Faith in the United States. Shoghi Effendi, then the international head of the religion, rolled out plans including goals for the religion in Latin America and Europe. In a few years, after losing her uncle for whom she was a care-giver, and with a renewal of the plans of the international development of Baháʼí communities, she embarked on pioneering for the religion in Europe, mostly Italy, from the late 1950s. While there she sang for the opening of the German Baháʼí House of Worship. She returned to America in the mid-1960s and lived outside of San Diego, California. All along she had maintained private lessons, occasionally sang, and took part in operatic societies and events. She died in a car accident on March 16, 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lois Towles</span>

Lois Towles was an American classical pianist, music educator, and community activist. Born in Texarkana, Arkansas, she grew up in the town straddling the Arkansas and Texas line. From an early age, she was interested in music and began piano lessons at age 9. After graduating as valedictorian of her high school class, she obtained a bachelor's degree from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas and worked as a high school teacher from 1936 to 1941. In 1942, Towles enrolled in the University of Iowa and earned two master's degrees in 1943. She went on to further her education at Juilliard, the University of California, Berkeley, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the American Conservatory at Fountainebleau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred T. Smith</span> U.S. Army brigadier general

Alfred T. Smith was a career officer in the United States Army. A veteran of the Spanish–American War, Philippine–American War, and World War I, he attained the rank of brigadier general and was most notable for his command of the Philippine Division (1935-1937) and the 3rd Infantry Division (1937-1938).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Carter Simmons</span> American musician

Alice Carter Simmons was an American pianist, organist, and music educator. She was the founding secretary of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM), and was head of the instrumental music program at Tuskegee Institute beginning in 1916; she also taught at Fisk University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mamie Hilyer</span> African American pianist

Mamie Hilyer was an African American pianist and promoter of classical music, who founded the Treble Clef Club (1897) and the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Choral Society (1901) in Washington D.C., playing a significant role in nurturing the district's musical culture.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Locke, Ralph P.; Barr, Cyrilla (1997-01-01). Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists Since 1860. University of California Press. ISBN   9780520083950.
  2. 1 2 McGinty, Doris (1979). "Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression". The Black Perspective in Music. 7 (1 (Spring 1979)): 59–74. doi:10.2307/1214428. JSTOR   1214428.
  3. ↑
    • "Annual May musicale". Evening Star. Washington, DC. May 25, 1903. p. 7. Retrieved February 21, 2018.(subscription required)
    • "The May musicale". The Colored American. Washington, DC. June 13, 1903. p. 5. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  4. ↑
  5. ↑ "Musical ladies abroad". Cleveland Gazette. Cleveland, OH. September 9, 1905. p. 1. Retrieved February 21, 2018.(subscription required)
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ Marshall, Harriet Gibbs. On Captain Napoleon B. Marshall, 1931. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries
  8. ↑ "The resignation of…". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. May 24, 1906. p. 2. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  9. ↑
    • "The withdrawal…". The Washington Times. Washington, DC. May 30, 1906. p. 9. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
    • "?? Layton vindicated". Washington Bee. Washington, DC. June 2, 1906. p. 1. Retrieved February 21, 2018.(subscription required)
  10. ↑ "The closing pupils' recital…". The Washington Post. Washington, DC. June 10, 1906. p. 5. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  11. ↑ "The Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression". Evening Star. Washington, DC. August 19, 1906. p. 59. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  12. ↑
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ "The conservatory for music". The Washington Bee. Washington, DC. June 11, 1910. p. 5. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  15. 1 2 • "Washington Conservatory of Music and School of Expression". The Appeal. Saint Paul, MN. June 10, 1911. p. 2. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Mrs. Harriet Gibbs Marshall…". The Washington Bee. Washington, DC. April 29, 1911. p. 5. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  17. 1 2 3 Oliver Randolph (17 Jun 1911). "Musical center in Washington". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pittsburgh, PA. p. 1. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  18. ↑ Note "Lewis" was used for Louis Gregory in various advertisements:
  19. ↑ Locke, Ralph P.; Barr, Cyrilla (January 1, 1997). Cultivating Music in America: Women Patrons and Activists Since 1860. University of California Press. p. 233. ISBN   9780520083950.
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ "The Melville Charlton Recital". The Washington Bee. Washington, DC. February 17, 1912. p. 5. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  22. ↑ "Miss Harriet Gibbs Marshall…". The New York Age. New York, NY. September 5, 1912. p. 6. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  23. ↑ "Mrs Harriet Gibbs Marshall…". Washington Bee. Washington, DC. September 7, 1912. p. 5. Retrieved February 21, 2018.(subscription required)
  24. ↑ "The nation's capital; The negro to make showing in inaugural parade". The Freeman. Indianapolis, IN. February 22, 1913. p. 1. Retrieved February 21, 2018.(subscription required)
  25. ↑ "Crescent theatre". The New York Age. New York, NY. May 29, 1913. p. 6. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  26. ↑ "Parisians address Bahai (sic) meeting". Evening Star. Washington, DC. 11 Dec 1913. p. 17. Retrieved Feb 22, 2018.
  27. ↑ "The Washington Conserbvatory…". The New York Age. New York, NY. 28 Jun 1917. p. 5. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  28. ↑ "To establish a national conservatory…". The Nebraska State Journal. Lincoln, NE. 5 Dec 1920. p. 28. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  29. ↑ "JA Jackson's page; Three periods represented" (PDF). The Billboard. New York, NY. May 14, 1921. p. 45. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  30. ↑ Frank Dambrosch (16 Apr 1922). "National negro music center". Evening Star. Washington, DC. p. 56. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  31. ↑ "National negro music center". Evening Star. Washington, DC. 16 Apr 1922. p. 56. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  32. ↑
  33. ↑ "Story of negro music woven rough courage, sorrow, hope" (PDF). Livingston Democrat. Geneseo, NY. Aug 30, 1922. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  34. ↑ "Study Jewish music". The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando, FL. 21 May 1924. p. 3. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  35. ↑ "Mrs. Harriet Gibbs Marshall…". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pittsburgh, PA. 30 Aug 1924. p. 16. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  36. ↑ Largey, Michael (May 1, 2006). Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music and Cultural Nationalism. University of Chicago Press. pp. 154–155. ISBN   9780226468655.
  37. ↑ "The Haitian Brotherhood…". The New York Age. New York, NY. 26 Feb 1927. p. 5. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  38. ↑ "Memorial services to S. Coleridge-Taylor". The New York Age. New York, NY. 11 Aug 1934. p. 5. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.
  39. ↑ Smith, Jessie Carney (1996-01-01). Notable Black American Women. VNR AG. ISBN   9780810391772.
  40. ↑ Etter-Lewis, Gwendolyn; Thomas, Richard; Thomas, Richard Walter (January 1, 2006). Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Baháʼís in North America, 1898-2004. US Baháʼí Publishing Trust. ISBN   9781931847261.
  41. ↑ "Woman bequeaths all property to DC music school". The Pittsburgh Courier. Pittsburgh, PA. 22 Mar 1941. p. 2. Retrieved Feb 21, 2018.

Coordinates: 38°56′58″N77°06′06″W / 38.949467°N 77.101746°W / 38.949467; -77.101746

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.