Musicians You Should Know: William Grant Still

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Basic Facts

Born: May 11, 1895, Woodville, Mississippi
Died: December 3, 1978, Los Angeles, California
Type of Performer: Composer
Genre: Popular music, classical
Awards/Notable Achievements:
  1. Honorary Master's Degree from Wilberforce University (1936)
  2. Honorary Doctorates from Howard University (1941), Oberlin College (1947), Bates College (1954), University of Arkansas (1971), Pepperdine University (1973), New England Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, and University of Southern California
  3. Harmon Award (1927)
  4. Phi Beta Sigma George Washington Carver Award (1953)
  5. Trophy from the League of Allied Arts in Los Angeles (1965)
  6. Trophy from the National Association of Negro Musicians
  7. First African American to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra
  8. First African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra in the United States
  9. First African American to conduct a major network radio orchestra in the United States
  10. First African American to have an opera produced by a major American company 

About William Grant Still

William Grant Still was born into a musical family in 1895. He started violin lessons at a young age but decided to enter Wilberforce University to study medicine. While there, he spent much of his time conducting the college band, and shortly thereafter he enrolled at Oberlin Conservatory for music composition. After college, he entered the commercial world of music, playing in orchestras and arranging and composing for bandleaders such as W.C. Handy and Paul Whiteman. He also spent several years arranging and conducting for the Deep River Hour for CBS and WOR. During this time, he won a scholarship to study at the New England Conservatory with George Chadwick, and another scholarship to study with Edgard Varese.

Still made his first serious appearance as a composer in New York in the 1920s, and he moved to Los Angeles in the 1930s. He published Afro-American Symphony in 1930, and it went on to become the piece for which he was most well-known. In 1936, he became the first African American to conduct a major symphony orchestra when he led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a concert of his pieces at the Hollywood Bowl. He went on to win numerous fellowships, commissions, and prizes over the course of his career. These included Guggenheim and Rosenwald Fellowships and a commission from the New York Worlds Fair in 1939-1940, among many others. In 1944, he won the Jubilee Prize for Best Overture from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra to celebrate its Jubilee Season. In 1961, he received a prize for his piece A Peaceful Land as the best composition honoring the United Nations. All told, he wrote over 150 pieces during his life, earning the nickname "Dean of African American Composers." He died from heart failure in December 1978.

Listen

Afro-American Symphony, performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Neeme Järvi


Festive Overture for Orchestra, performed by the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, conducted by John McLaughlin Williams


Further Reading

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