WILLIAM GRANT STILL (1895-1978)

"Dean of African American Composers"

FIRSTS...

• FIRST African American composer to have a symphony performed by a professional orchestra in the United States - Symphony No. 1 "Afro-American" (1930) - premiered by Howard Hanson and the Rochester Philharmonic. The piece's New York City premiere was given by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in 1935.
• FIRST African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936.
• FIRST opera by an African American (Troubled Island) to be performed by a major opera company (New York City Opera, 1949), and that same opera was the first by an African American to be nationally televised.