William Levi Dawson

Born just prior to the dawn of the Twentieth Century, William Levi Dawson encountered challenges in the Jim Crow era along the road to becoming a nationally recognized composer, choral arranger, conductor, and professor of music. From his days as a student at Tuskegee Institute in the final years of Booker T. Washington’s presidency, Dawson continually pursued education in music, despite racial barriers to college admission. Returning to Tuskegee, he became Director of the School of Music, and under his direction the Tuskegee Choir achieved a national reputation by singing to open Radio City Music Hall, presenting concerts for Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as performing over nationwide radio broadcasts and appearing on television. Composer William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, only the second extended musical work to be written by an African American, was premiered by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in both Philadelphia and New York City. Dawson’s arrangements of spirituals, the original folk music of African Americans enslaved in America during the antebellum period, quickly became highly sought-after choral works. Some of these works were published by established companies, but Dawson soon wisely utilized the steam press at Tuskegee Institute to publish his own compositions, thereby reaping more of the publishing profits. The fascinating tale of Dawson’s early life, quest for education, rise to success at Tuskegee, achievement of national notoriety as a composer, and retirement years spent conducting choirs throughout the United States and around the world, is narrated with a generous sprinkling of Dawson’s personal memories, enhanced by photographs.