Basic Facts
Born: November 8, 1885, Kansas City, Missouri (date contested)
Died: January 25, 1974, Los Angeles, California
Type of Performer: Composer, singer
Genre: Classical
Notable Achievements:
- First African American to earn a Master's degree in music
- First music critic for the Amsterdam News and the New York Courier
- First African American member of the Music Critics Circle of New York
About Nora Holt
Born Lena Douglas, Nora Holt grew up in Kansas Missouri. Her father was an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and both her parents were involved with Western University of Quindaro in Kansas, the first all-African American school west of the Mississippi. Nora grew up around the campus and helped her father write the school song in 1907. She went on to study composition, musicology, and music criticism at Western, graduating in 1917 as class valedictorian. That same year, she became the first music critic for the Chicago Defender, a post she held until 1921. She later became the first African American to earn a Master's degree in music in the United States when she graduated from Chicago Musical College. Her master's composition was an orchestral piece called "Rhapsody on Negro Themes." In 1919, she co-founded the National Association of Negro Musicians.
She changed her name to Nora Holt when she married her fourth husband, wealthy Chicago hotel owner George Holt. When he died in 1921, she inherited his fortune. She moved to New York and became an important part of the Harlem Renaissance. She became known as a socialite, composer, and performer, and gossip columns followed her love life and various "scandalous" escapades. During the 1930s, she traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia to give concerts and write, and she studied for a time with Nadia Boulanger, famed French pedagogue. Unfortunately, while she was traveling, over 200 of her compositions, nearly her entire collection, were stolen from their place in storage. Only two pieces, "The Sandman" and "Negro Dances" survived because of their publication in Music and Poetry, Holt's own magazine.
In 1938, Nora Holt returned to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. She taught music for several years before moving back to New York, where she became the first music critic for the Amsterdam News and the New York Courier. In 1945, she became the first African American member of the Music Critics Circle of New York. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she was a highly influential critic. She hosted and produced radio shows and promoted the work of African American musicians until her death in 1974.
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