Camilla Williams
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
and the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to receive a contract with a major American opera company.
Biography
Born in Danville, VirginiaDanville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in Virginia, United States, bounded by Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina. It was the last capital of the Confederate States of America. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Danville with Pittsylvania county for...
, Williams trained at Virginia State College (now Virginia State University
Virginia State University
Virginia State University is a historically black and land-grant university located north of the Appomattox River in Chesterfield, in the Richmond area. Founded on , Virginia State was the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of higher learning for black Americans...
). After receiving a B.S. there, she studied privately in New York, eventually with the great teacher Marion Szekely Freschl (who taught at Juilliard). She earned a Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...
Fellowship in 1943 and again in 1944. She continued to receive honors in vocal competitions.
Career
Beginning in 1944, Williams then performed on the coast-to-coast RCARCA
RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
radio network. In 1946 she was the first African American to receive a regular contract with a major American opera company and made her debut with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
singing the title role in Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
. During the next six years, she performed Nedda in Ruggiero Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème and the title role in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida. Williams sang throughout the United States and Europe with various other opera companies. In 1951 she sang Bess in the landmark first complete recording of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Under the baton of the Gershwin expert, Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel
Lehman Engel was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film.-Work in theatre, television and films:...
, this recording remains the best, most authentic recorded performance of the opera and made Miss Williams internationally famous. In April 1954 she became the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
to sing a major role with the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
when she performed her signature part of Cio-Cio-San. In 1963, she sang the "Star Spangled Banner" at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and before 250,000 people in Washington DC preceding Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
's "I Have a Dream
I Have a Dream
"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equality and an end to discrimination...
" speech with accompanist George Malloy
George Malloy
George Malloy was an American pianist particularly known for his work as an accompanist during the 1950s and 1960s. For thirty-one years he served as accompanist for Blue Hill Troupe, Ltd., an amateur theater group based in Manhattan...
.
Also a noted concert artist, she toured throughout the United States, in fourteen African countries, Formosa, South Korea, China, Japan, Laos, South Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand and Australia. In addition, she was a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. In 1950 she recorded Gustave Mahler's Symphony number VIII with Stokowski and the New York Philharmonic.
Williams was the first African American Professor of Voice appointed to the voice faculty of Indiana University in 1977 and in 1984 was the first African American instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. In 1995 she was an inaugural recipient of the National Opera Association's "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award, honoring the contributions of African Americans to the field of opera and in 1996 was honored as Outstanding African American Singer/Pioneer by Harvard University. She was one of the pioneering African American singers profiled in Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera, a PBS documentary first broadcast in February 2000. Williams was also profiled in the 2006 PBS documentary The Mystery of Love. She was one of eight women honored by the Library of Virginia
Library of Virginia
The Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, is the library agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia, its archival agency, and the reference library at the seat of government. The Library moved into a new building in 1997 and is located at 800 East Broad Street, 2 blocks from the Virginia State...
during Women's History Month
Women's History Month
Women's History Month is an annual declared month worldwide that highlights contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. March has been set aside as this month in the United Kingdom and in the United States...
in 2007 as part of its Virginia Women in History
Virginia Women in History
Virginia Women in History is an annual program sponsored by the Library of Virginia that honors eight Virginia women, living and dead, for their contributions to their community, region, state, and nation...
project. On February 11, 2009, a "Tribute to Camilla Williams" program was held in New York City's Schomburg Center's Langston Hughes Auditorium sponsored by the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and on September 4, 2009, she was awarded the prestigious President's Medal for Excellence by Indiana University. In 2011 her autobiography "The Life of Camilla Williams, African American Classical Singer and Diva" was published by The Edwin Mellen Press.
Williams lives in Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
. She is the widow of Charles T. Beavers, who was one of the principal attorneys for civil rights leader Malcolm X
Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
. Beavers represented Hinton Johnson, police brutality victim, following the now infamous beating that took place at the hands of police officers of New York City's 28th precinct on April 26, 1957.
External links
- Virginia Women in History Profile from the Library of Virginia, 2007
- Aida's Brothers and Sisters: Black Voices in Opera (PBS documentary, 2000)
- The Mystery of Love (PBS documentary, 2006; includes audio clip)