Florence Cole Talbert
*Florence Cole Talbert was born on this date in 1890. She was a Black operatic soprano, music educator, and musician.
Florence Cole was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a family deeply rooted in music and the performing arts. Her mother, Sadie Chandler Cole, was a mezzo-soprano and member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Her father was a basso and was well-known as a dramatic reader. In an interview in 1930, Talbert further revealed that her maternal grandmother, Mrs. Hatfield Chandler, was a patron of music who had founded the first "colored" Baptist choir in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Young Cole began her musical training as a pianist when she was six. This training continued even when her family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1898, when she was eight years old. By the time she was twelve, she had already started accompanying for her mother's concerts. When she was the first Black student to attend the Los Angeles High School, she studied music theory and ancient and modern languages there and participated in the school's music program.
However, she decided to become a singer when she first watched an Aida production at fifteen. Consequently, she joined her school's glee club, becoming the first Black soloist to join it. By this time, she had already begun voice training under Gloria Mayne Windsor, a soprano performing globally. Notably, she accompanied Emma Hackley, founder of the Colored Women's League, at a concert in Los Angeles at age sixteen. Seeing her talent, Hackley encouraged her to continue her voice training.
Due to her talent, she was selected as the soloist for commencement exercises at her school, becoming the first Black student to partake in a high school commencement program in LA. She began her college education at the University of Southern California College of Music, where she specialized in oratorio. She was the first Black woman to play the title role of Verdi's Aida in a European staging of the opera. During this time, she also composed the lyrics to Delta Sigma Theta's official hymn.
In 1930, Talbert decided to focus on teaching at Bishop College in Marshall, Texas, where she was the first Black director of music. After retirement, Talbert became a music educator. She taught at Fisk University, Tuskegee University, and Rust College. Through her career as a singer, a music educator, and an active member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, she became a legendary figure within the African American music community, also earning the titles of "Queen of the Concert Stage" and "Our Divine Florence."
Florence Cole Talbert died on April 3, 1961, aged 70. Her work in the 1910s and 1920s was instrumental in paving a path for Black musicians in the classical world.
