Black composers for kids: ten to know and a piece by each

Black composers have written concert music for more than 250 years. Many of them were kept out of concert halls and music schools in their own time, and orchestras are playing their music more often today. This list has ten composers, with a short story and one piece to hear for each. Florence Price has a full page on this site.

Ten Black composers

1. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (1745 to 1799)

He was born on the island of Guadeloupe, the son of an enslaved African woman and a French planter. In Paris, he became a champion fencer, a brilliant violinist, and the leader of one of the best orchestras in Europe. He wrote violin concertos, string quartets, and operas.

Hear: The last movement of his Violin Concerto in A major, Op. 5, No. 2.

2. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 to 1912)

He was born in London to an English mother and a father from Sierra Leone. He entered the Royal College of Music at 15. His choral piece “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” made him famous while he was still in his twenties.

Hear: “Deep River,” his piano setting of a spiritual.

3. Scott Joplin (about 1868 to 1917)

Joplin grew up in Texas, the son of a man who had been enslaved. He became known as the King of Ragtime, a style with a steady left hand and a bouncing, off-beat right hand. He also wrote an opera, Treemonisha.

Hear: “The Entertainer.”

4. Harry T. Burleigh (1866 to 1949)

Burleigh was a singer who studied in New York when Antonín Dvořák was the head of the school. He sang spirituals for Dvořák, who came to love them. Burleigh later arranged spirituals for solo voice and piano, which brought them into concert halls.

Hear: His arrangement of “Deep River.”

5. Florence Price (1887 to 1953)

In 1933, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played her Symphony No. 1. She was the first Black woman to have a symphony played by a major American orchestra. Read Florence Price for kids.

Hear: “Juba Dance” from Symphony No. 1.

6. William Grant Still (1895 to 1978)

Still wrote more than 150 works. His Afro-American Symphony was played by the Rochester Philharmonic in 1931. It was the first symphony by a Black American composer to be played by a major orchestra in the United States. He was also the first Black American to conduct one.

Hear: The third movement of the Afro-American Symphony. Listen for the banjo.

7. William Dawson (1899 to 1990)

Dawson ran away from home at 13 to go to school at the Tuskegee Institute, and he later led its famous choir. In 1934, the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the first performance of his Negro Folk Symphony.

Hear: His choral arrangement of “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel.”

8. Margaret Bonds (1913 to 1972)

Bonds was a pianist from Chicago and a student and friend of Florence Price. In 1933, she became the first Black soloist to play with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She wrote many songs with the poet Langston Hughes.

Hear: “Troubled Water,” a piano piece built on the spiritual “Wade in the Water.”

9. George Walker (1922 to 2018)

Walker was a concert pianist and a composer. In 1996, he became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Hear: Lyric for Strings. It is slow and calm, and about six minutes long.

10. Jessie Montgomery (born 1981)

Montgomery is a violinist and composer from New York. Orchestras across the United States play her music today.

Hear: “Starburst.” Three and a half minutes of fast, bright music for strings.

What to listen for

Spirituals. These are songs created by enslaved people in America. Burleigh, Dawson, Price, and Bonds all brought them into concert music.

Dance rhythms. The juba in Price’s symphonies and the ragtime of Joplin both come from Black American dance.

The blues. Still built his Afro-American Symphony on a blues tune.

Why some of these names are new to many people

For much of history, Black musicians in Europe and America were shut out of orchestras, conservatories, and publishing houses. A composer who could not get a piece played or printed could not build a name. Some of this music survived in family papers and libraries, and musicians are now bringing it back.

Things to do together

Place them in time. Find Florence Price on the composer timeline. Add the others by hand on the timeline to print. Saint-Georges lived at the same time as Mozart.

Hold a listening week. Play one piece a day and draw each one on a listening journal page.

Clap the ragtime. Play “The Entertainer.” Tap a steady beat with one hand, and try to clap the bouncing tune with the other.

Sing a spiritual. Learn “Wade in the Water” or “Deep River” together, then listen to how a composer set it.

For more composers, read women composers for kids and the guide to composers by era.