[Date of birth also given as 25th September, and 1899.]

William Levi Dawson was an African American composer, professor and choir director. He was born on September 26, 1899 in Anniston, Alabama and died on Feb. 5, 1990 in Montgomery, Alabama. At the age of 13 he ran away from home and entered the Tuskegee Institute. Dawson was 16 when he started composing. He graduated from Tuskegee Institute in 1921, and in 1925 received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Horner Institute of Fine Arts in Kansas City Missouri. Dawson earned his Master of Music degree at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, in 1927. He continued his education at the Eastman School of Music, and studied privately with several professors of Music.

Dawson returned to Tuskegee Institute to teach in 1931, and ran the Music Department for 25 years. During that time he brought world renown to the Tuskegee Institute Choir. Best known for his many fine arrangements of spirituals, Dawson also produced the Negro Folk Symphony, a 3-movement work which was first performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934. A visit to West Africa in 1952 led Dawson to revise the rhythmic patterns in the same year, to make them more authentic. The revised version was recorded in 1963 by the American Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and was released as a Decca LP. The recording has been reissued as Deutsche Grammophon

477 6502 (2007). In 1993 the Negro Folk Symphony was recorded by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Neem Järvi. The recording was first released on Chandos 9226 (1993); it was reissued on Chandos 9909 (2001). Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma has compiled an extensive Works List and a detailed bibliography for Dawson, both of which are found on the William Levi Dawson page of www.AfriClassical.com

(Contribution by wzick <wzick@ameritech.net>.)