Edge Rewrite
restyle Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

Jump to content

Zenobia Powell Perry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zenobia Powell Perry
Born
Zenobia Powell

October 3, 1908
Boley, Oklahoma, United States
DiedJanuary 17, 2004 (aged 95)
Xenia, Ohio, United States
EducationBoley High School
Cecil Berryman Conservatory
Alma materHampton Institute
Eastman School of Music
Langston University
Colorado State College
Wyoming University
OccupationsComposer, professor and civil rights activist
Employer(s)University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Central State University
OrganizationNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Notable workTawawa House
Children2

Zenobia Powell Perry (October 3, 1908 – January 17, 2004) was an American composer, professor and civil rights activist. She taught in a number of historically black colleges and universities and composed in a style that her biographer Jeannie Gayle Pool called "music with clear, classic melodies." Her work has been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Detroit Symphony and West Virginia University Band and Orchestra.

Biography

[edit]

Early life and education

[edit]
Perry with music students and teachers in 1949, including Milhaud and Martens. Perry is on the left.
Perry (left) with music students and teachers in 1949, including Milhaud and Martens

Perry was born Zenobia Powell on October 3, 1908,[1][2][3] in the once-predominantly African-American town of Boley, Oklahoma, to physician Calvin B. Powell and Birdie Thompson Powell (who had Creek Indian heritage). Her family was well educated and middle class.[1] Her grandfather, who had been a slave, sang her traditional spirituals as a child, which later influenced her work.[4]

As a child, Perry met Booker T. Washington and sang for him at his appearance in Boley on August 22, 1915, where he "declared she was a future Tuskegegian."[5] Perry took piano lessons as a child with Mayme Jones,[6] who had been taught by composer Robert Nathaniel Dett.[1] She won a piano competition in 1919.[7] Perry also learned to play violin as a child.[8] One of her biggest musical influences, however, came from the experience of hearing Hazel Harrison in concert, after which she knew she wanted to study music.[8]

In 1925, Perry graduated from Boley High School. Her father was not supportive of her decision to study music, but her mother was, and sent her to Omaha, Nebraska, to study at the Cecil Berryman Conservatory in 1929.[8] After her return to Boley, Dett visited her family to ask them to send her to the Hampton Institute in Virginia, where she could study with him.[8] However, soon after, Dett left Hampton for the Eastman School of Music and Perry decided on her own to study privately with Dett in Rochester, New York.[8] Perry studied with Dett until May 1932.[5] She studied composition briefly during this time with Cortez Reece at Langston University in Oklahoma. [9]

In 1935, she went on to study at the Tuskegee Institute, and, because of her family's connection with Washington and her promise to study education as well as music, she was allowed to attend.[8] At Tuskegee she studied with William L. Dawson who encouraged her to compose original work;[10] she was already preparing arrangements for the Tuskegee Institute Chorus.[8] Perry graduated in 1938.[11][12]

After Tuskegee, Perry became part of a teacher training program for Black Americans that was headed by Eleanor Roosevelt.[13] Roosevelt would become a mentor and friend to Perry and even helped sponsor her graduate studies.[13][14] Perry took classes at the Colorado State Teachers College and started teaching first grade in 1942.[5] In 1945, she received her Master of Arts degree from Colorado State College.[5]

She began "earnestly" writing her own music during the 1950s.[12] From 1952 to 1954, Perry worked on her master's degree in music composition at Wyoming University, where she studied under Allan Arthur Willman,[5] Darius Milhaud,[12][15] and Charles Jones.

Career

[edit]

Perry worked as a professor for much of her life and began seriously composing when she was in her forties.[1] From 1941 to 1945 Perry taught while attending the Colorado State Teachers College.[5] Two years later, she held a faculty position at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), where she remained until 1955.[12] During the years of 1949 and until she left UAPB, Perry toured with Kelton Lawrence as a piano duo in order to recruit students for UAPB.[5]

From 1955 to 1982, Perry was a faculty member and composer-in-residence at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio.[12] She continued to volunteer "on behalf of the African American community" after she retired.[16]

In 1998 she was honored by the University of Wyoming, winning the Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award.[17]

Work

[edit]
Scene from a 2014 revival of Tawawa House in Modesto, California

Perry's music is classical and "incorporates contrapuntal, tonal, mild dissonance, with some jazz and folk influence."[2] According to biographer Jeannie Gayle Poole, she was "also influenced by black American and Native American folklore, music, language and poetry."[9] She wrote an opera, Tawawa House, first performed in 1987 and revived in 2014.[18] Perry also wrote for orchestra, bands and composed a mass.[2] One of her most widely performed pieces is Threnody, a song cycle composed for her daughter set to the poetry of Donald Jeffrey Hayes. It was initially filed for copyright under the title Atmosphere: A Cycle of Songs in 1974, labeled as Op. 12.[19]

Archival collection

[edit]

Zenobia Powell Perry's papers are held at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois. The collection is titled Zenobia Powell Perry Scores and Music Manuscripts.[20] The collection as a whole consists primarily of original compositions and manuscripts produced by Powell herself.

Her pedagogical piano works are included in the University of Colorado Boulder's Hidden Voices: Piano Music by Black Women Composers.[21]

Personal life

[edit]

In 1932, Zenobia Powell married violinist "King" Earl Gaynor. While she was pregnant, Gaynor left and she raised their son on her own.[1] They later divorced in 1933. Her son, Lemuel, died in 1944 at age 11[1] of a ruptured appendix.[5] In 1941, she married Jimmie Rogers Perry and they had a daughter, soprano Janis-Rozena Peri, in 1943.[5] Perry was divorced again while her daughter was young.[13] Perry raised her daughter alone while working towards her advanced degrees and studies and also while also working as a professor.[1] Perry also supported her elderly mother for many years.[9]

In 1962, Perry joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to aid in the civil rights struggle.[13]

In 1989, Perry was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer, and her health deteriorated until her death, nearly 15 years later. She died on January 17, 2004, in Xenia, Ohio, aged 95.[1][9]

Works List

[edit]

Opera

[edit]

Choral

[edit]
  • Choral Suite No. 1 (SATB corus, percussion, piano, tape sounds), 1963
  • Done Made My Vow to the Lord (SATB), 1974
  • Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel? (soprano solo, SATB chorus and chamber orchestra)
  • Hallelujah (soprano, SATB, and piano)
  • Hymn of Praise (SATB)
  • Jubilee: Fare You Well (SATB chorus, tenor and bass soloists, and chamber orchestra)
  • Kingdom's Coming (SATB choir and chamber orchestra)
  • O Christians, What Cha Gonna Do? (SATB choir and chamber orchestra)
  • O Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells (SATB choir and chamber orchestra)
  • Up Over My Head (soprano solo, SATB, and piano)
  • Walk Together Children (SATB and piano)
  • A Wheel in a Wheel (SATB chorus and chamber orchestra)

Vocal

[edit]
  • Ah Got a Home in a Dat Rock, soprano and piano (1969)

Threnody Song Cycle, soprano and piano, Text: Donald Jeffrey Hayes (1968-1972)[19]

  • Threnody (1969)
  • Alien (1970)
  • Benediction (1972)
  • Poet (1969)
  • Pastourelle (1971)

Cycle of Songs on Poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar, for high voice and piano (1977-1983; revised 1995)[22]

  • Sunset
  • On a Clean Book
  • Spring Song
  • Drizzle
  • Life
  • Certainly Lord, tenor and piano (1974)
  • They Call the Sun Ol' Hannah (baritone and chamber orchestra)
  • Shine Along (baritone and chamber orchestra)
  • Sinna Man, So Hard, Believe! (tenor and chamber orchestra)
  • Oh I Want Two Wings (soprano and orchestra)
  • I Gotta Move When the Spirit Say Move (baritone and orchestra)
  • I Am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger (soprano and orchestra)
  • Hallelujah to the Lamb (tenor and chamber orchestra)
  • Follow the Drinking Gourd (baritone and orchestra)
  • I Gotta Home in Dat Rock (soprano and orchestra)
  • O de Angels Down Bowed Down (high voice and piano)
  • Kid Stuff (soprano and piano)
  • The Cottage, soprano and chamber orchestra/piano (1964)
  • Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray, baritone and piano (1978)
  • How Charming is the Place (soprano and organ/piano)
  • Trouble, Trouble (baritone and chamber orchestra)
  • The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llab (soprano, flute and piano)

Instrumental

[edit]
  • Arkansia, suite for violin and piano (1955)
  • Benediction, for violin and piano (see Threnody)
  • Conversations, two flutes and piano (1975)
  • String Quartet no. 1
  • Three Designs for Four Strings
  • Two Letters for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
  • Three Pieces for Horn and Piano
  • Pastels for orchestra
  • Mass in F-sharp minor
  • Sonatine for clarinet and piano[23]
  • Four Seasons for clarinet and Piano
  • Four Mynyms for Three Players (flute, oboe/clarinet, and piano)

Piano

[edit]
  • Vignette no. 1
  • Vignette no. 2
  • Times Seven
  • Ties
  • Teeta
  • Sonatine
  • Soliloquy
  • Round and Round
  • Rhapsody
  • Promenade
  • Pavanne
  • Nocturne
  • A Jazz Trifle
  • Flight
  • Childhood Capers
  • Blaize
  • Character Matters
  • Orrin and Echo
  • Suite from Tawawa House (piano 4-hands)

Legacy

[edit]

In 1981, Perry's daughter soprano Janis-Rozena Peri performed the song cycle Threnody at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City.[24]

Honors

[edit]

Her most important honors include:

Awards from Ohio institutions for her life achievements and contributions to Ohio culture:

  • 1987 Honored with a Music Citation for distinguished service to Ohio in the field of music at the Ohioans Library Association.[26]
  • 1988 Honored by Ohio National Organization of Women at the NOW Banquet in Columbus, as a part of their second annual women's history celebration.
  • 1991 Inducted into the Greene County [Ohio] Women's Hall of Fame.
  • 1993 Inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.
  • 1998 Named as one of Top Ten women for 1998 by Dayton Daily News.
  • 1999 Woman of the Year Award, Paul Laurence Dunbar House State Memorial, Dayton, Ohio.
  • 2000 Named 2000 Outstanding Senior Citizen of Green County, Ohio.
  • 2002 Cultural Arts Award for outstanding contributions in the field of Music Education, National Afro-American Museum, Wilberforce, Ohio.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Lanier, Jo Ann (1988). The Concert Songs of Zenobia Powell Perry. OCLC 22150454.
  • Pool, Jeannie Gayle (2008). American Composer Zenobia Powell Perry: Race and Gender in the 20th Century. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810863767.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Pool, Jeannie Gayle (2009). American Composer Zenobia Powell Perry: Race and Gender in the 20th Century. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810863774.
  2. 1 2 3 Gray, Anne. (2007). The world of women in classical music. La Jolla, California: WordWorld. pp. 207-208. ISBN 978-1-59975-320-1. OCLC 123539910.
  3. ↑ International Who's who in Music and Musicians' Directory. Melrose Press. 1977. p. 646. ISBN 978-0-900332-44-9.
  4. ↑ "Tawawa House by Zenobia Powell Perry" (PDF). Townsend Opera. 2014. Archived from the original on July 5, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pool, Jeannie Gayle (May 2002). "Zenobia Powell Perry Chronology". Zenobia Powell Perry Website. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Zenobia Perry". African Diaspora Music Project (ADMP). Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  7. ↑ Henager, Jane (October 3, 2024). "Composers to Discover! and BOTD: Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004)". Women's Philharmonic Advocacy. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McBride, Renee (December 2009). "American Composer Zenobia Powell Perry: Race and Gender in the 20th Century (review)". Notes. 66 (2): 313–316. doi:10.1353/not.0.0243. S2CID 162277408.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "zenobiapowellperry.org". Zenobia Powell Perry Website. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  10. ↑ Hine, Darlene Clark; Brown, Elsa Barkley; Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn (1993). Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Carlson Pub. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-926019-61-4.
  11. ↑ "Black Composers Matter: Zenobia Powell Perry". Listening In. October 12, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Walker-Hill, Helen (2007). From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 9780252074547. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Pool, Jeannie Gayle (2003). "Zenobia Powell Perry, An American Composer". International Alliance for Women in Music. Archived from the original on October 3, 2006. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  14. ↑ Oglesby, Meghann (February 26, 2018). "Black History Spotlight: Zenobia Powell Perry". Your Classical, Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  15. ↑ Bona, Suzanne (June 23, 2023). "Beautiful Music NOW - Zenobia Powell Perry". WSHU. Retrieved April 15, 2026.
  16. 1 2 "About the Dayton, Ohio Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon". The Dayton Ohio Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon. August 15, 2007. Archived from the original on September 15, 2007. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  17. ↑ "A & S Outstanding Alumna 1998 – Zenobia Powell Perry". College of Arts and Sciences. University of Wyoming. Archived from the original on December 26, 2004. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  18. ↑ Price, Deon Nielsen (January 2015). "Zenobia Powell Perry Opera Premiered". Triangle of Mu Phi Epsilon. 108 (4): 18. Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  19. 1 2 "Threnody". Song of America. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Guide to the Zenobia Powell Perry Collection". Columbia College Chicago Collection Guides / Finding Aids. January 1, 2020.
  21. ↑ "Zenobia Powell Perry | Hidden Voices: Piano Music by Black Women Composers". University of Colorado Boulder. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  22. ↑ "Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar". Song of America. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  23. ↑ Hoag, Melissa (December 30, 2022). Expanding the Canon: Black Composers in the Music Theory Classroom. Taylor & Francis. p. 218. ISBN 978-1-000-82162-8.
  24. ↑ Rothstein, Edward (June 3, 1981). "MUSIC NOTED IN BRIEF; Janis-Rozena Peri Sings Rachmaninoff and Bizet". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  25. ↑ "NOTEBOOK". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  26. ↑ International League of Women Composers Newsletter. The League. 1988. p. 16.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zenobia_Powell_Perry&oldid=1351307627"