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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This

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Speaker 1: Day History Class, a podcast that brings you a new

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Speaker 1: slice of history every day. Today is May eleven. The

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Speaker 1: day was May eleventh. Composer William Grant Still was born

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Speaker 1: in Woodville, Mississippi. He wrote more than one and fifty compositions,

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Speaker 1: and he was the first Black American conductor of a

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Speaker 1: major orchestra. Still it's often referred to as the Dean

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Speaker 1: of African American composers. When Still was a teenager, he

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Speaker 1: began studying the violin. His stepfather, Charles Shepherdson, encouraged his

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Speaker 1: love of music by taking him to recitals and introducing

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Speaker 1: him to opera on Red Seal records. After graduating from

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Speaker 1: high school in nineteen eleven, Still in rolled at Wilberforce

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Speaker 1: University in Ohio. He learned to play multiple instruments, including

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Speaker 1: the cello and obo. His musical talent flourished in college,

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Speaker 1: where he conducted the university band, composed music, and formed

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Speaker 1: a string quartet. But Still left the school before graduating.

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Speaker 1: He was interested in pursuing a career as a classical composer.

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Speaker 1: He studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and at

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Speaker 1: the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston under George

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Speaker 1: Whitefield Chadwick and He began working as a freelance performer

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Speaker 1: and arranger in nineteen fifteen. Still married Grace Bundy, and

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Speaker 1: they eventually had four children together, though they divorced in

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine. Still served in the Navy during World

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Speaker 1: War One, but beyond that he dove head first into music.

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Speaker 1: He worked as an arranger for composer and musician W. C. Handy.

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Speaker 1: He played oboe in the musical Shuffle Along, which had

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Speaker 1: a successful run on Broadway and featured people like Josephine Baker,

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Speaker 1: Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson. He took a job with

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Speaker 1: Harry Pace's past Phonograph Company, doing arrangements for artists who

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Speaker 1: recorded on the Black Swan label. In the Rochester Philharmonic

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Speaker 1: Orchestra performed Stills Afro American Symphony. It was the first

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Speaker 1: time a major orchestra performed a symphony composed by a

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Speaker 1: Black American, and it's still's best known composition. He said

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Speaker 1: the following about the symphony, I knew I wanted to

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Speaker 1: write a Symphony. I knew that it had to be

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Speaker 1: an American work, and I wanted to demonstrate how the blues,

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Speaker 1: so often considered a lowly expression, could be elevated to

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Speaker 1: the highest musical level. The symphony featured elements of spirituals, blues, jazz,

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Speaker 1: and call and response. It was also the first symphony

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Speaker 1: to use a banjo. Many of Still's works incorporated Black

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Speaker 1: American forms like the blues, spiritual in jazz. By the

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Speaker 1: time Afro American Symphony premiered, Still had been to Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles and composed more than one hundred songs for the

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Speaker 1: band leader in orchestral director Paul Whiteman. He moved to

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles permanently in nineteen thirty four. Throughout the nineteen thirties,

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Speaker 1: he arranged music for films like Pennies from Heaven and

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Speaker 1: Lost Horizon, and he continued to collect first in his

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Speaker 1: musical career. He became the first Black American to conduct

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Speaker 1: a major symphony orchestra in the United States when he

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Speaker 1: led the Los Angeles for Harmonic in nineteen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: and he was the first to have an opera performed

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Speaker 1: on national television when his opera A Bayou Legend, finished

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Speaker 1: in nineteen forty one, premiered on PBS in nineteen one.

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Speaker 1: Right after still divorced Grace Bundy, he married Verna Rvy

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Speaker 1: in Mexico, where interracial marriage was legal. Rvy was a

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Speaker 1: pianist and writer who wrote the libretti for many of

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Speaker 1: his operas over the course of his career, still host

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Speaker 1: nearly two symphonies, ballets, operas, chamber music pieces, and works

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Speaker 1: for solo instruments. He collaborated with Zorah Neil Hirston, Katherine

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Speaker 1: Garrison Chapin, and Linkston Hughes, and his compositions were influenced

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Speaker 1: by people like Paul Lawrence Dunbar and W. E. B.

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Speaker 1: Du Bois. Still died in Los Angeles. I'm Eve Jeff

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Speaker 1: Coote and hopefully you know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. And if you have any

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Speaker 1: comments are suggestions, you can send them to us via

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Speaker 1: email at this day at I heeart Media dot com.

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Speaker 1: You can also follow us on social media at t

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Speaker 1: D i h C podcast. Thanks again for listening to

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Speaker 1: the show and we'll see you tomorrow. For more podcasts

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