41 Facts About Philippa Schuyler

Philippa Duke Schuyler was an American concert pianist, composer, author, and journalist.

Philippa Schuyler became famous in the 1930s for her talent, intellect, mixed race parentage, and the eccentric parenting methods employed by her mother.

Philippa Schuyler performed two recitals at the New York World's Fair at the age of eight.

Philippa Schuyler won numerous music competitions, including the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts at Carnegie Hall.

Philippa Schuyler encountered racism as she grew older, and had trouble coming to terms with her mixed-race heritage.

Philippa Schuyler later became a journalist and was killed in a helicopter crash in South Vietnam in 1967.

Philippa Duke Schuyler was born in Harlem, New York on August 2,1931.

Philippa Schuyler was the only child of George Schuyler, a prominent black essayist and journalist, and his wife Josephine Schuyler, a white Texan and one-time Mack Sennett bathing beauty and the granddaughter of slave owners.

Philippa Schuyler's parents believed that intermarriage could "invigorate" both races, produce extraordinary offspring, and help solve social problems in the United States.

Mrs Philippa Schuyler believed that genius could best be developed by a diet consisting exclusively of raw foods.

Philippa Schuyler was given a daily ration of cod liver oil and lemon slices in place of sweets.

Philippa Schuyler was recognized as a prodigy at an early age.

Philippa Schuyler's mother was an overbearing stage mother who entered her into every possible music competition.

In June 1936, four-year-old Philippa Schuyler won her first gold medal at the annual tournament sponsored by the National Guild of Piano Teachers, where she performed ten original compositions.

Philippa Schuyler won eight consecutive prizes from the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts at Carnegie Hall, then was barred from competing because the other children had little chance to win against her.

Philippa Schuyler won gold medals from the Music Education League and from the City of New York.

Philippa Schuyler declared June 19,1940, "Philippa Duke Schuyler Day" at the New York World's Fair, where she performed two recitals.

At nine, Philippa Schuyler became the subject of "Evening With A Gifted Child", a profile written by New Yorker correspondent Joseph Mitchell, who heard several of her early compositions.

Philippa Schuyler noted that she addressed both her parents by their first names.

Philippa Schuyler completed the eighth grade at the age of 11 and by the age of 14 she had composed 200 musical selections.

Philippa Schuyler became the youngest member of the National Association for American Composers and Conductors in 1942.

At 15, Schuyler graduated from Father Young S J Memorial High School, the Schola Cantorum of Pius X School of Liturgical Music.

Philippa Schuyler performed with the New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium.

The books contained numerous newspaper clippings in which both George and Josephine Philippa Schuyler commented on their beliefs and ambitions for their daughter.

In later life, Philippa Schuyler grew disillusioned with the racial and gender prejudice she encountered, particularly when performing in the United States, and much of her musical career was spent playing overseas.

Philippa Schuyler fled to Latin America, where people of mixed races were more prevalent.

Philippa Schuyler chose a voluntary exile of traveling and performing in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe.

Philippa Schuyler played at the inauguration of three successive presidents in Haiti.

Philippa Schuyler began passing for white in 1959, at first so she could travel in South Africa, then again years later thinking she would have a better career if she reentered the American concert scene as a white performer.

Philippa Schuyler supplemented her limited income by writing about her travels.

Philippa Schuyler published more than 100 newspaper and magazine articles internationally, and was one of the few black writers for the United Press International.

Philippa Schuyler's mother punished her severely with whippings, and she never made friends because she did not attend school regularly.

Philippa Schuyler developed an inferiority complex about her race and viewed her blackness as a "stigma".

Philippa Schuyler rejected many of her parents' values and viewed their interracial marriage as a mistake.

Philippa Schuyler increasingly became a vocal feminist and made many attempts to pass herself off as a woman of Ibero-American descent named Felipa Monterro y Schuyler.

Philippa Schuyler wanted to marry an Aryan man to boost her career and produce offspring she deemed ideal.

In 1966, Philippa Schuyler traveled to South Vietnam to perform for the troops and Vietnamese groups.

Philippa Schuyler returned in April 1967 as a war correspondent for William Loeb's Manchester Union Leader and served as a lay missionary.

Philippa Schuyler survived the crash but could not swim and drowned.

Philippa Schuyler was the second of two American women journalists to die in Vietnam.

Philippa Schuyler's mother was profoundly affected by her death and died by suicide a few days before the second anniversary of her death in 1969.