Todd Duncan (1903-1998)
Kentucky-native Todd Duncan received a B.A. from Butler University in Indianapolis in music followed by an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College. Duncan was George Gershwin's personal choice as the first performer of the role of Porgy in Porgy and Bess in 1935 and played the role more than 1,800 times. He led the cast during the Washington run of Porgy and Bess at the National Theatre in 1936, to protest the theatre's policy of segregation. Duncan stated that he "would never play in a theater which barred him from purchasing tickets to certain seats because of his race." Eventually, management would give in to the demands and allow for the first integrated performance at National Theatre. Duncan was also the first performer for the role of Stephen Kumalo in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars.
In 1945, he became the first African American to sing with a major opera company, and the first black person to sing in an opera with an otherwise white cast, when he performed the role of Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci with the New York City Opera. In the same year, he sang the role of Escamillo, the bullfighter, in Bizet's Carmen. In 1954, Duncan was the first to record "Unchained Melody", a popular song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. The recording was made for the soundtrack of the obscure prison film Unchained, in which Duncan also played a minor character. Following Duncan's version, the song went on to become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century.
"... spirituals are so deep inside of me, it's difficult for me to find words that are meaningful. Spirituals are a part of whatever I am. When I sing them my being sings them, not my throat... It is very difficult for me to put into words something that is at the bottom of my very being."
-Todd Duncan
Camilla Williams (1919-2012)
Williams trained at Virginia State College, now Virginia State University, and received her bachelor's degree in music education. After her college education, she left her job as a third-grade teacher to study music in Philadelphia with a prestigious voice instructor, Marion Szekely Freschl. She earned a Marian Anderson Award in 1943.
Beginning in 1944, Williams performed on the coast-to-coast RCA radio network. In 1946 she was the first African American to receive a regular contract with a major American opera company, making her debut with the New York City Opera in the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. Her performance was hailed by a critic for The New York Times as "an instant and pronounced success." During her time at the New York City Opera, she performed Nedda in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Mimi in Puccini's La bohème, and Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, and the title role in Verdi's Aida.
Williams sang throughout the United States and Europe with various other opera companies. In 1951 she sang Bess in the landmark, first complete recording of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, alongside bass-baritone Lawrence Winters and conductor Lehman Engel. Though she enjoyed the recording experience, she believed strongly that the work ought to be restaged to better portray contemporary African American life, reflecting her decision to refrain from performing the work on stage.
In 1954 she became the first African American to sing a major role with the Vienna State Opera and performed her signature role in Madama Butterfly. In August 1963, as part of the civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the White House, and, when scheduled performer Marian Anderson was delayed trying to get through the gathered throngs, Williams sang the anthem before 250,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial, before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech.
A noted concert artist, Williams toured throughout the United States, and Latin America, in fourteen African countries, as well as numerous countries in Asia: Formosa, South Korea, China, Japan, Laos, South Vietnam, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia. In addition, she was a soloist with the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. In 1950 she recorded Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with Stokowski and the New York Philharmonic.
Williams was the first African-American Professor of Voice appointed to the voice faculty of what is now known as the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 1977. In 1984 she became the first African-American instructor at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. In 1997 Camilla Williams became a Professor Emerita of Voice at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music but continued to teach privately.[6]