Zenobia Powell Perry

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

Early life and education alt= Perry with music students and teachers in 1949, including Milhaud and Martens. Perry is on the left. Perry was born Zenobia Powell on October 3, 1908, 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. Her grandfather, who had been a slave, sang her traditional spirituals as a child, which later influenced her work.

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." Perry took piano lessons as a child with Mayme Jones, who had been taught by composer Robert Nathaniel Dett. Perry also learned to play violin as a child. 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.

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. she was already preparing arrangements for the Tuskegee Institute Chorus. Roosevelt would become a mentor and friend to Perry and even helped sponsor her graduate studies. Perry took classes at the Colorado State Teachers College and started teaching first grade in 1942. and Charles Jones.

Career Perry worked as a professor for much of her life and began seriously composing when she was in her forties.

Work

Perry's music is classical and "incorporates contrapuntal, tonal, mild dissonance, with some jazz and folk influence." Perry also wrote for orchestra, bands and composed a mass.

Archival collection 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. 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.

Personal life In 1932, Zenobia Powell married violinist "King" Earl Gaynor. While she was pregnant, Gaynor left and she raised their son on her own.

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

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 Four Seasons for clarinet and Piano Four Mynyms for Three Players (flute, oboe/clarinet, and piano)

Piano

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

Honors Her most important honors include:

1999 Woman of the Year Award, Paul Laurence Dunbar House State Memorial, Dayton, Ohio. 2003 Elizabeth Mathias Award from the Mu Phi Epsilon fraternity of professional musicians.

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. 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.