Zenobia Powell Perry


Zenobia Powell Perry was an American composer, professor and civil rights activist. She taught in a number of historically black colleges and universities and composed in a style that writer Jeannie Gayle Pool called "music with clear, classic melodies." Her work has been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Detroit Symphony and West Virginia University Band and Orchestra.

Biography

Early life and education

Perry was born in what was once a predominantly African American town of Boley, Oklahoma to a physician, Dr. Calvin B. Powell and Birdie Thompson Powell. Her family was well-educated and middle-class. Her grandfather, who had been a slave, sang her traditional spirituals as a child, which later influenced her work.
As a child, Perry met Booker T. Washington and sang for him at his appearance in Boley on August 22, 1915, where he "declared she was a future Tuskegegian." Perry took piano lessons as a child with Mayme Jones who had been taught by Robert Nathaniel Dett. She won a piano competition in 1919. Perry also learned to play violin as a child. One of her biggest musical influences, however, came from the experience of hearing Hazel Harrison in concert, after which she knew she wanted to study music.
In 1925, Perry graduated from Boley High School. Her father was not supportive of her decision to study music, however her mother allowed Perry to pursue music, sending her to Omaha, Nebraska and studying at the Cecil Berryman Conservatory in 1929. After her return to Boley, Dett visited her family to ask them to send her to the Hampton Institute, where she could study with him. However, soon after, Dett left Hampton for the Eastman School of Music and Perry decided on her own to study privately with Dett in Rochester, New York. Perry studied with Dett until May 1932.
In 1935, she went on to study the Tuskegee Institute, and, because of her family's connection with Washington and a promise from Perry to study education as well as music, she was allowed to attend. At Tuskegee she studied with William L. Dawson who encouraged her to compose original work; she was already preparing arrangements for the Tuskegee Institute Chorus. Perry graduated in 1938.
After Tuskegee, Perry became part of a black teacher training program which was headed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt would become a mentor and friend to Perry and even helped sponsor her graduate studies. In 1941 she took classes at the Colorado State Teachers College and started teaching first grade in 1942. In 1945, she received her Master of Arts degree from Colorado State College.
She began "earnestly" writing her own music during the 1950s. From 1952 to 1954, Perry worked on her master's degree in music in composition at Wyoming University, where she studied under Allan Arthur Willman, Darius Milhaud and Charles Jones.

Career

Perry worked as a professor for much of her life and began seriously composing when she was in her forties. From 1941 to 1945 Perry taught while attending the Colorado State Teachers College. Two years later, she held a faculty position at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, where she remained until 1955. During the years of 1949 and until she left UAPB, Perry toured with Kelton Lawrence as a piano duo in order to recruit students for UAPB.
From 1955 to 1982, she was a faculty member and composer-in-residence at Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio. She continued to volunteer "on behalf of the African American community" after she retired.
In 1998 she was honored by the University of Wyoming, winning the Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award.

Work

Perry's music is classical and "incorporates contrapuntal, tonal, mild dissonance, with some jazz and folk influence." She wrote an opera, Tawawa House, first performed in 1987 and revived in 2014. Perry also wrote for orchestra, bands and composed a mass.

Archival collection

Zenobia Powell Perry's papers are held at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago. The collection is titled Zenobia Powell Perry Scores and Music Manuscripts. The collection as a whole consists primarily of original compositions and manuscripts produced by Powell herself.

Personal life

In 1932 she was married to violinist "King" Earl Gaynor. While she was pregnant, Gaynor left and she raised their son on her own. They later divorced in 1933. Her son, Lemuel died in 1944 at age 11 of a ruptured appendix. In 1941 she married Jimmie Rogers Perry and they had a daughter Janis in 1943. Perry was divorced again when her daughter was young. Perry raised her daughter alone while working towards her advanced degrees and studies and also while also working as a professor.
In 1962, she joined the NAACP to aid in the civil rights struggle.
In 1989 she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer, and her health deteriorated until her death.

Honors

Her most important honors include:
Awards from Ohio institutions for her life achievements and contributions to Ohio culture.