Zenobia Powell Perry facts for kids

Zenobia Powell Perry (born October 3, 1908 – died January 17, 2004) was an amazing American composer, a dedicated professor, and a strong supporter of civil rights. She taught at many historically black colleges and universities, which are colleges created to serve African American students. Her music was known for its "clear, classic melodies." Famous groups like the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and the Detroit Symphony have performed her work.

Zenobia Powell Perry's Life Story

Growing Up and Learning Music

Perry with music students and teachers in 1949. Perry is on the left.

Zenobia Powell was born in Boley, Oklahoma, a town where most people were African American. Her father was a doctor, and her mother had some Creek Indian family history. Her family was well-educated and had a comfortable life. Her grandfather, who had been a slave, sang traditional spirituals to her when she was little. These songs later inspired her own music.

When she was a child, Zenobia met the famous leader Booker T. Washington. She even sang for him in 1915! He said she would be a future student at Tuskegee University. Zenobia started piano lessons with Mayme Jones, who had learned from a famous musician named Robert Nathaniel Dett. Zenobia won a piano contest in 1919. She also learned to play the violin. Hearing the amazing pianist Hazel Harrison in concert made Zenobia realize she wanted to study music seriously.

In 1925, Zenobia finished Boley High School. Her father didn't want her to study music, but her mother did. So, in 1929, her mother sent her to the Cecil Berryman Conservatory in Omaha, Nebraska. After she came back home, Robert Nathaniel Dett visited her family. He wanted her to study with him at the Hampton Institute. But Dett soon left Hampton, so Zenobia decided to study with him privately in Rochester, New York, until 1932.

In 1935, she went to the Tuskegee Institute. Because her family knew Booker T. Washington and she promised to study education along with music, she was allowed to attend. At Tuskegee, she studied with William L. Dawson. He encouraged her to write her own music. She was already arranging songs for the Tuskegee Institute Chorus. Zenobia graduated in 1938.

After Tuskegee, Zenobia joined a program to train Black American teachers. This program was led by Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady of the United States. Eleanor Roosevelt became a mentor and friend to Zenobia. She even helped Zenobia pay for her advanced studies. In 1941, Zenobia took classes at Colorado State Teachers College. She started teaching first grade in 1942. In 1945, she earned her Master of Arts degree from Colorado State College.

She started writing her own music "seriously" in the 1950s. From 1952 to 1954, Zenobia worked on her master's degree in music composition at Wyoming University. There, she learned from famous composers like Allan Arthur Willman, Darius Milhaud, and Charles Jones.

Zenobia's Career as a Professor and Composer

Zenobia Perry spent most of her life working as a professor. She began composing a lot of music when she was in her forties. From 1941 to 1945, she taught while studying at the Colorado State Teachers College. Two years later, she became a professor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). She stayed there until 1955. From 1949 until she left UAPB, Zenobia toured with Kelton Lawrence as a piano duo. They performed to help recruit new students for UAPB.

From 1955 to 1982, she was a professor and a composer who lived and worked at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. Even after she retired, she continued to volunteer and help the African American community.

In 1998, the University of Wyoming honored her with the Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award.

Zenobia's Musical Works

A scene from a 2014 show of Tawawa House in Modesto, California.

Zenobia Perry's music is classical. It often uses counterpoint, which is when different melodies are played at the same time. Her music also uses clear tones and sometimes a little bit of dissonance, which means sounds that clash a bit. You can also hear influences of jazz and folk music in her work. She wrote an opera called Tawawa House. An opera is a play where most of the words are sung. Tawawa House was first performed in 1987 and again in 2014. Zenobia also wrote music for orchestras, bands, and even composed a mass, which is a type of religious musical piece.

Where to Find Her Music

Zenobia Powell Perry's important papers are kept at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago. This collection is called Zenobia Powell Perry Scores and Music Manuscripts. It mainly contains her original music and handwritten notes.

Zenobia's Family Life

In 1932, Zenobia Powell married a violinist named "King" Earl Gaynor. She became pregnant, but Gaynor left, and she raised their son by herself. They divorced in 1933. Sadly, her son, Lemuel, passed away in 1944 at age 11 from a ruptured appendix. In 1941, she married Jimmie Rogers Perry. They had a daughter named Janis in 1943. Zenobia divorced again when her daughter was young. She raised her daughter alone while also working on her advanced degrees and teaching as a professor.

In 1962, she joined the NAACP. This group works to fight for civil rights and equality for African Americans.

In 1989, she was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. Her health slowly got worse until she passed away.

Awards and Honors

Zenobia Powell Perry received many important awards for her contributions to music and culture:

• 1999: Woman of the Year Award from the Paul Laurence Dunbar House State Memorial in Dayton, Ohio.
• 2002: Became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), a group that protects the rights of musicians.
• 2003: Received the Elizabeth Mathias Award from the Mu Phi Epsilon fraternity, a group for professional musicians.

She also received many awards from organizations in Ohio:

• 1987: Honored with a Music Citation for her excellent service to Ohio in music by the Ohioans Library Association.
• 1988: Honored by the Ohio National Organization of Women (NOW) at their banquet in Columbus.
• 1991: Inducted into the Greene County [Ohio] Women's Hall of Fame.
• 1993: Inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame.
• 1998: Named one of the Top Ten women for 1998 by the Dayton Daily News.
• 1999: Woman of the Year Award, Paul Laurence Dunbar House State Memorial, Dayton, Ohio.
• 2000: Named the 2000 Outstanding Senior Citizen of Green County, Ohio.
• 2002: Received the Cultural Arts Award for her amazing work in Music Education from the National Afro-American Museum in Wilberforce, Ohio.

Images for kids

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  Scene from a 2014 revival of Tawawa House in Modesto, California