William Grant Still – 1895-1978

Educated at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music—and also a student of avant-gardist Edgard Varèse—Still was a rare commodity when he began to compose in the 1920s: a black composer of classical music. His symphonies, operas, ballets, and other works were influenced by traditional African American music and also often evoked black life in America.