Lillian Evanti

About

Lillian Evanti (1890-1967) was an opera singer and composer. She graduated from Howard University with a bachelor's degree in music. Upon moving to France, she quickly established her operatic career and toured regularly as an opera singer and concert artist throughout Europe and South America. Despite her international fame, the Metropolitan Opera Company refused her a contract due to racial discrimination. Nevertheless, she achieved some success in the States and performed a private recital at the White House for Eleanor Roosevelt as well as sang Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata at the National Negro Opera Company in 1945. Though she continued performing late into her life, she also began composing in the 1940s. Through her friendships with poet Georgia Douglas Johnson and W.C, Handy, a noteworthy composer and publisher, her compositional gifts were nurtured, and she gained exposure as a composer. The Handy Brothers published Lillian's "The Mighty Rapture", "The Twenty-third Psalm", "Thank You Again and Again", "Speak to Him Thou", and "High Flight". Eventually she published her own music as owner and founder of the Columbia Music Bureau in Washington.

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Works by Lillian Evanti