16 Facts About Eva Jessye

Eva Jessye was an American conductor and composer who was the first black woman to receive international distinction as a professional choral conductor.

Eva Jessye is notable as a choral conductor during the Harlem Renaissance.

Eva Jessye created her own choral group which featured widely in performance.

Eva Jessye was born January 20,1895, in Coffeyville, Kansas.

Eva Jessye was educated at Western University, a historically black university in Kansas, and Langston University in Oklahoma.

Eva Jessye later studied privately with Will Marion Cook in New York City.

In 1919, Jessye began work as the choir director at Morgan State College in Baltimore.

Eva Jessye returned west for a time to teach at an African Methodist Episcopal Church school in Oklahoma.

Eva Jessye had first named them the "Original Dixie Jubilee Singers", but many groups began to appropriate the name, Dixie Jubilee Singers, so she changed hers.

In 1929, Eva Jessye went to Hollywood as the choral director for the MGM film Hallelujah, which had an all-black cast directed by King Vidor.

Eva Jessye received praise from members of the black press when she spoke out against the discriminatory practices that she endured while on the set for this film.

In New York, Eva Jessye worked with creative multi-racial teams in groundbreaking productions that experimented with form, music and stories.

In 1927, Eva Jessye published My Spirituals, a collection of her arrangements of spirituals, together with stories about growing up in southeast Kansas.

Eva Jessye donated her extensive collection of books, scores, artwork, and other materials to the University of Michigan, which became the basis of the university's African American Music Collection.

Dr Eva Jessye was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.

Eva Jessye left most of her personal papers to Pittsburg State University in Kansas.