Raoul Abdul

Raoul Abdul Rahim (born November 7, 1929 in Cleveland , Ohio , United States ; † January 15, 2010 in Manhattan , New York City , United States) was an American baritone opera singer , singing teacher, music critic and author.

Life

Raoul Abdul's father, Hamid Abdul, came from Calcutta , India . His mother, Beatrice Shreve, was from Cleveland. He was their only child and was an orphan early on . Raoul grew up with his aunt Ada Shreve. Artis Lane (born 1927), a renowned sculptor, and Buster Harding were his cousins. At the age of six, Raoul Abdul took part in performances in a children's theater. He attended John Hay High School. After graduating from high school, he began working as a journalist for Cleveland Call & Post . At the age of 22 he moved to New York City in 1951. This was made possible by the support of the Cleveland-based entrepreneur and art patron Leonard Hanna (1889–1957) In New York he began to study music and singing. Among his teachers were William Warfield and Marian Anderson . During this time he founded Coffehouse Concerts in Harlem . From 1959 to 1962 he studied with Alexander Kipnis . In 1962 he received a diploma from the Vienna Music Academy . He was involved as a singer in several performances, including at Carnegie Hall . In 1954 he hosted a program on the history of the black theater at the Countee Cullen Library , which impressed the writer Langston Hughes . He made Abdul his assistant and secretary in 1961. Raoul became a close friend of the writer and remained his assistant until his death in 1967. He studied at Harvard University in 1966, the New School for Social Research , the Cleveland Institute of Music, the New York College of Music and the Mannes College of Music .

Raoul Abdul gave private singing lessons in his New York apartment in Chelsea based on the singing technique he learned in Vienna. Eudora Francine Price was his student. He was known as a specialist in the German art song and wrote music reviews for the New York Amsterdam News for over thirty years . His column was called Reading the scores [Read scores] . He wrote The Cultural Scene for the Associated Negro Press and was the cultural editor of The New York Age magazine . He died on January 15, 2010 in Manhattan shortly after undergoing bypass surgery .

Works (selection)

• Alan Lomax , Raoul Abdul: 3,000 Years of Black Poetry , Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1970
• The Magic of Black Poetry , Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1972
• Famous Black Entertainers of Today , Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1974
• Blacks in Classical Music , Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1977

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Paid Notice: Deaths ABDUL, RAOUL . In: The New York Times . February 13, 2010, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed November 22, 2017]).
2. ^ ^{A b c d} Abdul, Raoul - Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. Retrieved November 22, 2017 (American English). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Raoul Abdul | The HistoryMakers. Retrieved November 22, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Michael Henry Adams: Raoul Abdul, Rodney Leonard and a Great House of New York, in Harlem! In: Huffington Post. Retrieved May 2, 2010, November 22, 2017 (American English). 
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} William J. Zick: In Memoriam: Raoul Abdul (1929-2010). In: AfriClassical. January 17, 2010, accessed November 22, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Raoul Abdul. In: Dodd, Mead & Company Archive. University of Delaware, accessed November 22, 2017 . 
7. ↑ Arnold Rampersad: The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing America . Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-19-988227-4 ( google.de [accessed November 22, 2017]).
8. ^ Music Education - Eudora Price. In: eudoramusic.com. Eudora Price, accessed November 22, 2017 . 
9. ^ Harlem Opera Theater Salutes Black History Month with Duke Ellington's Opera "Queenie Pie" at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Retrieved November 22, 2017 . 
10. ^ Alan Lomax, Raoul Abdul: 3000 years of black poetry: an anthology . Dodd, Mead and Company, New York 1970 (English, google.de [accessed November 22, 2017]).
11. ^ Raoul Abdul: The Magic of Black Poetry . Dodd, Mead and Company, New York 1972, ISBN 978-0-396-06513-5 (English, google.de [accessed November 22, 2017]).
12. ^ Raoul Abdul: Famous Black Entertainers of Today . Dodd, Mead, 1974, ISBN 978-0-396-06849-5 ( google.de [accessed November 22, 2017]).
13. ^ Raoul Abdul: Blacks in Classical Music: A Personal History . Dodd, Mead and Company, New York 1977, ISBN 978-0-396-07394-9 (English, google.de [accessed November 22, 2017]).