writes:
The first African American woman to conduct major United States
orchestras is dead and little known even during Women's History Month by
African American women with degrees in music. Who is to blame? See
John Malveaux
The New York Times
Margaret Rosezarian Harris, Musician and Educator, 56
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: March 22, 2000
Margaret Rosezarian Harris, a musician and educator
who was the first black woman to conduct the symphony orchestras of
Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minnesota and 11 other
American cities, died on March 7 in New York City. She was 56 and lived
in Elmsford, N.Y.
The cause was a heart attack, said Sandra G. Owen, a friend.
Ms. Harris was born in Chicago on Sept. 15, 1943,
the only child of Dewey and Clara Townsend Harris. Before her fourth
birthday, she played a public piano recital of 18 short pieces and three
encores, all performed from memory. She was soon performing in halls as
far from home as the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, earning
as much as $2,000 a performance.
When she was 6, her parents ended the tours and
placed her in school. At 10 she performed with the Chicago Symphony and
won a scholarship to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Ms. Harris's
mother moved with her to Philadelphia, working there as a dressmaker.
Her father, a Pennsylvania Railroad mechanic, remained in Chicago,
visiting his wife and daughter regularly until his death in 1967.
Ms. Harris later earned bachelor's and master's
degrees from the Juilliard School. Her graduate work was supported by a
grant from the Leopold Schepp Foundation. Ms. Harris would later become a
trustee of the foundation.
Though piano was her first love and she played solo
recitals in the United States and abroad, Ms. Harris gained the most
prominence as a conductor.
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