William Grant Still

William Grant Still

Fellow: Awarded 1934
Field of Study: Music Composition
Fellow: Awarded 1935
Field of Study: Music Composition
Fellow: Awarded 1938
Field of Study: Music Composition

Competition: US & Canada

As published in the Foundation’s Report for 1933–34:

STILL, WILLIAM GRANT:  Appointed for creative work in musical composition, in the United States; tenure, twelve months from May 14, 1934.

Born May 11, 1895, at Woodville, Mississippi. Education:  Wilberforce University, 1911–16. Musical studies at the Oberlin conservatory, New England Conservatory, and with Edgar Varèse.

Principal Compositions:  From the Land of Dreams, performed by the International Composers’ Guild in New York, 1925; Darker America, performed by the International Composers’ Guild in New York, 1926, by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Rochester, 1927, 1930, and for broadcasting by John Tasker Howard in New York, 1933; Levee Land, performed by the International Composers’ Guild in New York, 1926; From the Journal of a Wanderer, performed by the North Shore Festival Orchestra in Evanston, Illinois, 1926, and by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester, 1929; From the Black Belt, performed by the Barrère Ensemble in New York, 1927, and by the Eastman School Little Symphony in Rochester, 1933 and 1934; Log Cabin Ballads, performed by the Barrère Ensemble in New York, 1928; Africa, performed by the Barrère Ensemble in New York, 1930, by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Rochester, 1930, at the Festival of American Music in Bad Homburg, 1931, by the Pasdeloup Orchestra in Paris, 1933, and in part by Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra in New York, 1933, and the New York Sinfonietta in New York, 1933; Sahdji, performed by the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, 1931, and at the Fourth Festival of American Music, 1934; Afro-American Symphony, performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in Rochester, 1931, 1932, and in part under the direction of Howard Hanson in Berlin, Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1933; La Guiablesse, performed by the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, 1933; and three movements by the Pan American Association of Composers, New York, 1934.

Publications:  Music: Winter’s Approach, 1923; Darker America, 1924; The Breath of a Rose, 1926.

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