Roland Hayes

Roland Hayes June 3 1887 – January 1 1977 Was An American Lyric Tenor. He Is Considered The First African-American Male Concert Artist To Receive Wide Acclaim Both At Home And Internationally. Critics Lauded His Abilities And Linguistic Skills With Songs In French German And Italian. Hayes Was Born In Curryville Georgia Near Calhoun On June 3 1887 To Fanny And William Hayes. Roland’s Parents Were Tenant Farmers On The Plantation Where His Mother Had Once Been A Slave. Roland’s Father Who Was His First Music Teacher Often Took Him Hunting And Taught Him To Appreciate The Musical Sounds Of Nature. When Hayes Was Eleven His Father Died And His Mother Moved The Family To Chattanooga Tennessee. William Hayes Claimed To Have Some Cherokee Ancestry While His Maternal Great-Grandfather Aba Ougi Also Known As Charles Was A Chieftain From Côte D'Ivoire. Aba Ougi Was Captured And Shipped To America In 1790. At Mt. Zion Baptist Church In Curryville Founded By Roland’s Mother Is Where Roland First Heard The Music He Would Cherish Forever Negro Spirituals. It Was Roland’s Job To Learn New Spirituals From The Elders And Teach Them To The Congregation.
At The Age Of Twelve Roland Discovered A Recording Of The Italian Tenor Enrico Caruso. Hearing The Renowned Tenor Revealed A World Of European Classical Music. Hayes Trained With Arthur Calhoun An Organist And Choir Director In Chattanooga. Roland Began Studying Music At Fisk University In Nashville In 1905 Although He Only Had A 6th Grade Education. Hayes’s Mother Thought He Was Wasting Money Because She Believed That African-Americans Could Not Make A Living From Singing. As A Student He Began Publicly Performing Touring With The Fisk Jubilee Singers In 1911. He Furthered His Studies In Boston With Arthur Hubbard Who Agreed To Give Him Lessons Only If Hayes Came To His House Instead Of His Studio. He Did Not Want Roland To Embarrass Him By Appearing At His Studio With His White Students. During His Period Studying With Hubbard He Worked As A Messenger For The Hancock Life Insurance Company To Support Himself. Hayes Performed His Own Musical Arrangements In Recitals From 1916–1919 Touring From Coast To Coast. For His First Recital He Was Unable To Find A Sponsor So He Used Two Hundred Dollars Of His Own Money To Rent Jordan Hall For His Classical Recital. To Earn Money He Went On A Tour Of Black Churches And Colleges In The South. In 1917 He Announced His Second Concert Which Would Be Held In Boston’s Symphony Hall. On November 15 1917 Every Seat In The Hall Was Sold And Hayes’s Concert Was A Success Both Musically And Financially But The Music Industry Was Still Not Considering Him A Top Classical Performer 3 Page Needed . He Sang At Walter Craig's Pre-Lenten Recitals 4 And Several Carnegie Hall Concerts. He Performed With The Philadelphia Concert Orchestra And At The Atlanta Colored Music Festivals And At The Washington Conservatory Concerts. In 1917 He Toured With The Hayes Trio Which He Formed With Baritone William Richardson And Pianist William Lawrence.
In April 1920 He Traveled To Europe. He Began Lessons With Sir George Henschel Who Was The First Conductor Of The Boston Symphony Orchestra And Gave His First Recital In London’s Aeolian Hall In May 1920 With Pianist Lawrence Brown As His Accompanist. Soon Hayes Was Singing In Capital Cities Across Europe And Was Quite Famous. Almost A Year After His Arrival In Europe Hayes Had A Concert At London’s Wigmore Hall. The Next Day He Received A Summons From King George V And Queen Mary To Give A Command Performance At Buckingham Palace. He Returned To The United States In 1923. He Made His Official Debut On 16 November 1923 In Boston's Symphony Hall Singing Berlioz Mozart And Spirituals Conducted By Pierre Monteux Which Received Critical Acclaim. He Was The First African-American Soloist To Appear With The Boston Symphony Orchestra. He Was Awarded The Spingarn Medal In 1924. Hayes Finally Secured Professional Management With The Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Company. He Was Reportedly Making $100 000 A Year At This Point In His Career. In Boston He Also Worked As A Voice Teacher. One Of His Pupils Was The Canadian Soprano Frances James. He Published Musical Scores For A Collection Of Spirituals In 1948 As My Songs Aframerican Religious Folk Songs Arranged And Interpreted.
In 1932 While In Los Angeles For A Hollywood Bowl Performance He Married Alzada Mann. One Year Later They Had A Daughter Afrika. The Family Moved Into A Home In Brookline Massachusetts. Hayes Continued To Perform Until The Age Of Eighty-Five When He Gave His Last Concert At The Longy School Of Music In Cambridge Massachusetts. He Died Five Years Later On January 1 1977. Even When Hayes Became A Successful Musician He Faced The Same Prejudices As Most African-Americans At The Time. In His Germany Tour On 1923 Some People Protested Against His Concert In Berlin. A Newspaper Writer Criticized Him As “an American Negro Who Has Come To Berlin To Defile The Name Of The German Poets And Composers.” Citation Needed The Night Of The Concert Roland Faced An Angry Audience Who Mocked Him For Ten Minutes. Hayes Stood Still Until They Stopped And Then He Began Singing Schubert’s "Du Bist Die Ruh". Hayes’s Remarkable Voice And Musical Talent Won Over The German Audience And His Concert Was A Success. The Chicago Defender National Edition Jul 25 1942 Paper Reported A Case In Witch Hayes' Wife And Daughter Were Thrown Out Of A Rome Georgia Shoe Store For Sitting In The White-Only Section Hayes Confronted The Store Owner. The Police Then Arrested Both Hayes Whom They Beat And His Wife. Hayes And His Family Eventually Left Georgia.
On Many Of His Concerts Hayes Would Attempt To Abandon The Use Of Segregated Seating. At A Concert In Atlanta Georgia Hayes Had The Main Floor Of The Auditorium As Well As The Boxes And First Balcony Halved Between The Races. The Galleries Were Reserved For Colored Students At A Special Rate. No Whites Were Allowed In Them Except The Ones Chaperoning The Students. Citation Needed Hayes Taught At Black Mountain College For The 1945 Summer Institute Where His Public Concert Was According To Martin Duberman "one Of The Great Moments In Black Mountain's History" 215 . Citation Needed After This Concerts In Which Unsegregated Seating Went Well The School Had Its First Full Time Black Student And Full Time Member Of The Faculty. In 1982 The University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga Opened A New Musical Performance Center The Roland W. Hayes Concert Hall. The Concert Venue Is Located At The Dorothy Patten Fine Arts Center.
The Roland Hayes Committee Was Formed In 1990 To Advocate The Induction Of Roland Hayes Into The Georgia Music Hall Of Fame. In 1992 When The Calhoun Gordon Arts Council Was Incorporated The Roland Hayes Committee Became The Roland Hayes Music Guild And Museum In Calhoun Georgia. The Opening Was Attended By His Daughter Afrika.
There Is A Historical Marker Located On The Grounds Of Calhoun High School Calhoun Georgia On The North-West Corner Of The Campus Near The Front Of The Calhoun Civic Auditorium.
Hartford Stage And City Theatre Pittsburgh Shared The World Premiere Of "Breath & Imagination" By Daniel Beaty A Musical Based On The Life Of Hayes On January 10 2013. read less