R. Nathaniel Dett, African American Composer, Pianist & Choral Director Born Oct. 11, 1882

[R. Nathaniel Dett (Photo from Library of Congress; Merwin Siu, violin & Prof. Phoenix Park-Kim, piano (Photo from WGTE.org)]

Hear First Movement, Cinnamon Suite (4:11)
R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a complete Works List by Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma of Lawrence University Conservatory. The composer's works for solo piano include Cinnamon Grove, S. 12, suite for piano (1928). Phoenix Park-Kim is Assistant Professor of Piano at Indiana Wesleyan University. In 2008 she provided us with an audio file of the premiere recording she made of the First Movement (4:11), Moderato molto grazioso, as a preview of a future CD. Prof. Park-Kim and violinist Merwin Siu of the Toledo Symphony performed it as part of the WGTE Toledo Public Radio program. It can be heard at: “Live From FM 91: Music of African American Composers.” The link to the segment can also be found on the R. Nathaniel Dett page at AfriClassical.com, which also features several other brief audio samples, including Dr. William Chapman Nyaho playing a work from his CD Senku, Piano Music by Composers of African Descent, Juba Dance.

R. Nathaniel Dett was an African American composer and pianist whose tenure as Choral Director at Hampton Institute was legendary. He was born in Drummondville, now part of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma has kindly made his research file on R. Nathaniel Dett available to AfriClassical.com. At age five, Dett was playing pieces by ear. He then began piano lessons. Dett and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1893, settling in Niagara Falls, New York, where they ran a tourist home.

In 1903 Dett began his studies at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. We learn from Prof. De Lerma that Dett majored in both piano and composition. It was at Oberlin that he first heard Dvorak's use of Bohemian folk song in classical music. Dr. De Lerma writes: “From this time, he was resolved to participate in the preservation of the spirituals although he had originally looked on them, as did others, as reminders of slavery times.”

“When Dett completed his five-year course at Oberlin in 1908, he became the first African American to earn a B.A. in Music there with a major in composition and piano.” “He immediately began teaching, first at Lane College (Jackson, Tennessee) until 1911, when he moved to Lincoln Institute (now University) in Jefferson City, Missouri, and then in 1913 to Hampton Institute (now University) as director of the music program. Dett died in Battle Creek, Michigan while touring with a Women's Army Corps chorus as a member of the U.S.O. As a composer, Dett is remembered chiefly for the choral works he based on African American spirituals, and for the works for solo piano he composed in the Romantic style.

Latisha A. Wright of New York City signed the Guest Book at AfriClassical.com on June 14, 2010; “I am the Great-Granddaughter to the late R. Nathaniel Dett. The Granddaughter to the late Helen Elise Hopkins, Dett's daughter. I would just like to send my thanks and gratitude for this informative page, as unfortunately, I have just learned of my Great-Grandfather and all that he has accomplished, a few years ago. This page allows me to hear his delightful music and learn more of the wonderfully talented man he was and forever will be. Again my sincere thank you. :)”

Phoenix Park-Kim
Merwin Siu
Cinnamon Grove
R. Nathaniel Dett
Born October 11, 1882
Toledo Public Radio