Eva Jessye
Eva Alberta Jessye (born January 20, 1895 in Coffeyville , Kansas, † February 21, 1992 in Ann Arbor , Michigan) was an African-American choir director and composer.
Life
Jessye studied choral music and music theory at Western University in Quindaro since 1908 and at Langston University in Oklahoma since 1914 . She taught in various elementary schools before becoming a reporter and columnist for the Baltimore Afro-American in 1925 . In 1926, in New York City, she founded the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers, a choir that performed spirituals , ballads , ragtime and jazz music, and light operatic literature on stage, in radio broadcasts and in films. There the composer Will Marion Cook became aware of her, who taught and promoted her.
The Jubilee Singers starred in Harry A. Pollard's film Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1926 . 1929 led Jessye the choir in Hollywood for the film Hallelujah by King Vidor . On this occasion, her choir was named Eva Jessye Choir. In 1934 she was choirmaster in the opera production Four Saints in Three Acts by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein . In the following year she led the choir in the world premiere of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess , the opera that she accompanied worldwide for the next thirty years.
In addition, Jessye was active in the American civil rights movement. She worked with civil rights activists such as Marian Anderson , Mary McLeod Bethune , Julia Davis , Eubie Blake , Langston Hughes , Martin Luther King and Paul Robeson . The Eva Jessye Choir was the official choir of Martin Luther King's March on Washington for Work and Freedom in 1963. She also worked as an actress in films such as Black Like Me (1964) and Slaves (1969).
Jessye founded the Eva Jessye Afro-American Music Collection at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1974 and the Eva Jessye Collection at Pittsburg State University in 1977 , where she was artist in residence from 1978 to 1981. She was named Kansas State Ambassador for Culture in 1981 by Governor John W. Carlin . She received an honorary doctorate from Eastern Michigan University in 1987.
Compositions
Jessye's compositions include the oratorios Paradise Lost and Regained (1934), The Life of Christ in Negro Spirituals (1931) and The Chronicle of Job (1936).
Web links
- Eva Jessye at the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The Eva Jessye Collection , Leonard H. Ax Library, Pittsburg State University (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jessye, Eva |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jessye, Eva Alberta |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American choir director and composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 20, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Coffeyville , Kansas , United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 21, 1992 |
| Place of death | Ann Arbor , Michigan , United States |