People, Locations, Episodes

Mary Dawson, Opera Singer, and Teacher born

Mary C.Dawson

*On this date, in 1894, Mary Dawson was born. She was an African American musician, administrator, and teacher and the founding director of the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC).

Originally from Meridian, NC, Mary Cardwell Dawson and her family moved to Pittsburgh at an early age. Dawson’s musical training included studying at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Chicago Musical College. She taught voice privately at the Cardwell School of Music, established in Pittsburgh in 1927. In the 1930s, she toured with the Cardwell Dawson Choir, an award-winning group that appeared at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago and the New York World’s Fair. Dawson was also the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) president from 1939 to 1941.

Upon presenting Aida at the NANM convention in 1941, she officially launched her NNOC later that year. The star was Julia Rhea, one of many Blacks who would otherwise have had difficulty finding opportunities to sing professionally in the United States. Other members were Minto Cato, Carol Brice, Robert McFerrin, and Lillian Evanti. The company had challenging financial issues for over twenty-one years but mounted productions in Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. Spending her final years in Washington, D.C., Mary Dawson died on March 19, 1962.

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