William L. Dawson

＂Black composer William L. Dawson earned wide recognition for his arrangements of Black American spirituals and his Negro Folk Symphony. Gwynne Kuhner Brown provides a sensitive and multifaceted look at the career of an important twentieth-century artist. Born in 1899, Dawson studied music at the Tuskegee Institute before embarking on a wide-ranging career. Brown’s account follows the composer from his Kansas City years of studying music and performing on trombone to his time in Chicago. There, he played with the likes of Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines while sitting as first trombone for the Chicago Civic Orchestra and continuing his college and conservatory studies. Dawson’s position as music director at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church sparked an interest in Black folksong that led him to publish arrangements of Black spirituals. During his subsequent twenty-five years teaching at Tuskegee, Dawson directed the school choir in performances of his own work with spirituals and led the group to international acclaim. Engaging and long overdue, William L. Dawson offers the first full-length look at a pioneering Black composer＂--

Gwynne Kuhner Brown is a professor of music at the University of Puget Sound.