As a child, concert violinist and professor Elwyn A. Adams was a musical prodigy of some notoriety in the African American community of Cleveland, Ohio, where he was born on August 3, 1933. At age five he gave his first violin recital at East Mt. … Read MoreElwyn Albert Adams (1933-1995)
World-class symphony conductor Rafael Payare was born February 23, 1980 in the northern port city of Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela, the son of cartographer Juan R. Payare and elementary school teacher Trina Torres de Payare. In 1994, at age 13, Payare began studying French horn … Read MoreRafael Payare (1980- )
American singer, songwriter, and producer, Charles Kent Wilson, best known as Charlie Wilson, was born on January 29, 1953 to Reverend Oscar and Lucy Wilson in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His father was a Church of God in Christ minister. His mother was a pianist and minister … Read MoreCharlie Wilson (1953- )
Actor, rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer Terrence Deshon Howard is best known for his role as Lucius Lyons, music mogul, in the TV series Empire for which he won the BET Best Actor Award in 2015. While he began his career appearing on several … Read MoreTerrence Howard (1969- )
Mathematician Floyd Leroy Williams was born on September 20, 1939 in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended his local schools, and in his senior year of high school, he was offered a scholarship to Lincoln University of Missouri to study music. Williams studied Classical Piano and … Read MoreFloyd Leroy Williams (1939- )
Memphis Minnie, known as the “Queen of the Blues,” was a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Her title stems from her legacy of successfully recording music across four decades as well as being the lone female voice in a male dominated blues scene. Memphis Minnie was … Read MoreMemphis Minnie (1887-1973)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a teenage cellist who performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle on May 19, 2018. Born on April 4, 1999, Kanneh-Mason grew up in Nottingham, England with his six siblings. His father Stuart Mason worked as a … Read MoreSheku Kanneh-Mason (1999- )
Carol Channing was an Afro-European actress and performer. Channing was born in Seattle, Washington on January 31, 1921. She was the only child of Adelaide Glaser and George Christian (Stucker) Channing. Her father moved the family to San Francisco, California when Channing was two years … Read MoreCarol Elaine Channing (1921-2019)
Donald Walbridge “Don” Shirley was an American classical and jazz composer and pianist. Shirley was born on January 29, 1927, to Stella Gertrude Young and Edwin Samuel Shirley in Pensacola, Florida. His mother and father were Jamaican-born immigrants. Shirley was a prodigy, taught to play … Read MoreDon Shirley (1927-2013)
Taylor Emmanuel Gordon was born in 1893 in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, one of six children of a cook and a laundress. He is best known for his career as a singer in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. After leaving Montana in 1910 for a job in Minnesota, … Read MoreTaylor Emmanuel Gordon (1893-1971)
