Anybody know of any black classical musicians?All i know of is 2,William Grant Still,and St george .....
Outgoing Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice is a classically-trained pianist. I've heard her play. She's a damn good pianist, regardless of whether one agrees with her political views or not
Chevalier de Saint-Georges Joseph Bo(u)logne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (December 25, 1745 – June 10, 1799) was one of the most important figures in the Paris musical scene in the second half of the 18th century, he was also famous as a swordsman and equestrian. Known as the "Black Mozart" or the "Voltaire of music" he was one of the earliest musicians of the European classical type known to have African ancestry. Joseph Bologne was a mulatto born out-of-wedlock in Guadeloupe to Nanon, a former black Wolof slave, and a white French plantation owner, Georges Bologne de Saint-Georges. The child was named Joseph. Although his father called himself ‘de Saint-Georges’, after one of his properties, he was not born into the nobility. Some biographers have mistaken him for Pierre Boullongne-Tavernier, controlleur général of finance, whose nobility dated back to the 15th century. The confusion surrounding the nobility of Saint-Georges' father originated with de Beauvoir’s novel of 1840. However, Georges Bologne was not enobled until 1757, when he acquired the title of Gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du roi. In 1747 George Bologne was accused unjustly of murder and fled to France with Nanon and her child to prevent their being sold. After two years he was granted a royal pardon and the family returned to Guadeloupe. In 1753, at the age of eight, George took Joseph to France permanently where he was enrolled in a private academy. At the age of 13 Saint-Georges became a pupil of La Boëssière, a master of arms, and excelled in all physical exercises, especially fencing. When still a student Saint-Georges beat Alexandre Picard, a fencing-master of Rouen, who had mocked him as ‘La Boëssière’s upstart mulatto’, and was rewarded by his father with a horse and buggy. On graduating, at the age of 19, he was made a Gendarme de la Garde du Roi and dubbed chevalier. After the end of the Seven Years War, George Bologne returned to his Guadeloupe plantations, leaving his son with a handsome annuity. The young chevalier became the darling of fashionable society; all contemporary accounts speak of his romantic conquests. In 1766 the Italian fencer Giuseppe Faldoni came to Paris to challenge Saint-Georges. Faldoni won, but proclaimed Saint-Georges the finest swordsman in Europe. Nothing is known of Saint-Georges’ early musical training. However, after 1764, works dedicated to him by Lolli and Gossec suggest that Gossec was his composition teacher and that Lolli taught him violin. Saint-Georges’ technical approach was similar to that of Gaviniés, who may also have taught him, but Fétis’s claim that he studied with Leclair is mere conjecture. In 1769 he became a member of Gossec’s new orchestra, the Concert des Amateurs, at the Hôtel de Soubise, and was soon named its leader. While still a young man, he acquired multiple reputations; as the best swordsman in France, as a violin virtuoso, and as a composer in the classical tradition. He composed and conducted for the private orchestra and theatre of the marquise de Montesson, the morganatic wife of the King's cousin, Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans. In 1771, he was appointed maestro of the Concert des Amateurs, and later director of the Concert de la Loge Olympique, the biggest orchestra of his time (65-70 musicians). This orchestra commissioned Joseph Haydn to compose six symphonies (the "Paris Symphonies" Nr. 82-87), which Saint-Georges conducted for their world premiere. Renowned both for his skill as a composer and musician, he was selected for appointment as the director of the Royal Opera of Louis XVI. But this was prevented by three Parisian divas who petitioned the King in writing against the appointment, insisting that it would be beneath their dignity and injurious to their professional reputations for them to sing on stage under the direction of a "mulatto". Recent research suggests that Boulogne may have performed in recital with the French composer Jacques Marnier Companie and may have introduced to him the unusual comb instrument for which Companie composed several works. Thwarted in his musical career, Saint-Georges earned fresh renown as a competitive fencer. He had already been dubbed "chevalier" by appreciative crowds at the Palais Royal. There is a famous portrait of him crossing swords in an exhibition match with the daring transvestite spy, the Chevalier d'Eon, in the presence of George of Hanover, the Prince of Wales and Britain's future king. Although the son of a nobleman and accustomed to life among the aristocracy of the court at Versailles, Saint-Georges served honourably in the army of the Revolution against France's foreign enemies, although he is not known to have joined the domestic revolutionary struggle prior to the imprisonment of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. He was appointed the first black colonel of the French army, and commanded a regiment of men of colour volunteers, largely consisting of former slaves from the region of his birth. Repeatedly denounced, however, because of his aristocratic parentage and past association with the royal court, he was later expelled from the army, arrested, and died destitute in Paris in 1799. Saint-Georges wrote symphonies, roughly 25 concertos for violin and orchestra, string quartets, sonatas, and songs in the style of Mozart, Haydn and the composers of the "Mannheim school". He also wrote at least five operas with a possible sixth opera, Le droit de seigneur, disputed among music scholars. Excerpts from his first opera, Ernestine, were also used in an opera pastiche, Recueil d’airs et duos, along with music by other composers. Info taken from wiki... [youtube]sUvuXJP_LOg[/youtube]
Saw a documentary about him too bad most of his work was lost in the chaos of the french revolution. We dont know just HOW good he was....
Blind Tom Wiggins Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (May 25, 1849 – June 13, 1908) was an African American autistic savant and musical prodigy on the piano [youtube]U8k3g4icEv0[/youtube] This is one of his pieces
