William Grant Still

1945-1949

1945

William Grant Still's Festive Overture is given its first performance on January 19th by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Eugene Goosens conducting. This work won first place in the orchestra's jubilee season competition by unanimous vote of the judges.

Sarah Vaughan performs at an amateur contest and as a result is hired by Earl Hines; this is the beginning of her career.

Robert Todd Duncan (1903- ) becomes the first black singer to perform with a major opera company, the New York City Opera.

1946

Gospel/jazz singer Dinah Washington begins recording for Mercury Records.

Mahalia Jackson records "Move On Up a Little Higher."

After singing on the Vaudeville circuit and in the U.S.O., Pearl Bailey (1918-1990) makes her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman.

1947

William Grant Still awarded an honorary doctorate by Oberlin College.

1948

Doris Akers (1923- ) forms the Simmons-Akers Singers.

Conductor (Charles) Dean Dixon (1915-1976) awarded the Alice M. Ditson Award for the most outstanding Amercian conductor of 1947-48. Unable to secure a post in the U.S., Dixon leaves to conduct in Europe the following year.

1949

William Grant Still's opera Troubled Island premiered by the New York City opera; it is the first opera by a black American to be performed by a major opera company.

William Grant Still composes Songs of Separation

Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson makes his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York.

The term "rhythm and blues" coined by the music industry, replacing "race records."