African-American composer and musician William Grant Still was born July 15, 1895, in Woodville, Mississippi; he was reared in Little Rock, Arkansas.William Grant Still and his first wife, Grace Bundy, had four children. Still took a break from his musical studies at Oberlin during World War I to join the Navy. At this time the only job available to African-Americans in the Navy was mess attendant; despite this discriminatory treatment, he and many other African-Americans chose to reinforce their claim on democracy and freedom and fight for liberty overseas, although they did not have full freedom at home. After it was discovered that he could play the violin, he was relieved of some of his mess responsibilities to perform for officers' meals during his tour of duty.
Still was the first African-American to conduct a major symphony orchestra, the first African-American to have an opera—Troubled Island (1949)—performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television (A Bayou Legend, 1981). The period from 1926 to the early 1940s was Still's most prolific. During this time he wrote Levee Land (1925), a suite for orchestra and soprano that combines traditional western musical elements with jazz; From the Black Belt (1926), a work for chamber orchestra based on seven short character sketches; Sahdji (1930), a choral ballet based on an African story; and Afro-American Symphony.
Still's Afro-American Symphony became the first Black-composed symphony performed by an American orchestra; it was premiered by the Eastman Rochester Philharmonic in 1931. The symphony was performed by 34 other American and European orchestras during the 1930s. His most popular work, Lenox Avenue (1936), is a ballet depicting life in Harlem, and his opera Troubled Island (1941) is about the Haitian slave rebellion and consequent troubles of their leader Jean Jacques Dessalines.
During the 1950s Still turned to writing for young audiences. This period includes The Little Song That Wanted to Be a Symphony (1954), The Little Red Schoolhouse (1957), The American Scene (1957)—a set of five descriptive suites for young Americans based on geographic regions of the country—and various songs and arrangements written for children's music textbooks.
William Grant Still died in 1978.
Reference:
Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century
Leon Litwack and August Meier, editors
University if Illinois Press, 1998