Roland hayes school
- •
Roland Hayes Biography
by Randye Jones
“I wonder how well aware people are of the serious intent and purpose to which these songs were given by the religious leaders of my forebears; and the necessity of their intelligent, inspired, leadership suited to the heart and soul needs of my people at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation?” — Roland Hayes
Tenor and composer Roland Wiltse Hayes was born in a plantation cabin in Curryville, Georgia, on June 3, 1887. His mother, Fanny Hayes, was an ex-slave. She and her husband, William, worked as tenant farmers to raise their seven children. When William Hayes died from a work-related injury in 1898, Fanny–who Roland called Angel Mo’–moved her family to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Because he had to help support his family, young Hayes was only able to complete the fifth grade. He worked in an iron foundry, where he was badly injured when a conveyor belt pulled him into the machinery.
His mother made certain that he attended church regularly. Hayes sang in the church choir and with a group he fo
- •
The son of former slaves, Roland W. Hayes, born June 3, 1887 in Curryville, Georgia, became the first African American male to become an internationally acclaimed concert vocalist. As a youth, he sang in his Baptist church and on street corners for tips before attending Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee where he performed and toured with the famed Fisk Jubilee Singers, an experience that eventually landed him in Boston. Working odd jobs, by 1915 Hayes had saved up enough money to rent Boston’s Symphony Hall and give his first recital to an audience stunned by his masterfully executed selection of Negro spirituals, lieder and arias by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Mozart. Continuing to act as his own promoter and manager, Hayes next toured the United States and England where in 1920 he performed for King George V and Queen Mary and studied lieder with Sir George Henschel.
Returning to the United States in 1922, Hayes was flattered by glowing reviews following concerts in Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, and at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. He took additional voice lessons an
- •
Roland Hayes
African American lyric tenor and composer
Roland Wiltse Hayes (June 3, 1887 – January 1, 1977) was an American lyric tenor and composer. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills demonstrated with songs in French, German, and Italian. Hayes’ predecessors as well-known African-American concert artists, including Sissieretta Jones and Marie Selika, were not recorded. Along with Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, Hayes was one of the first to break this barrier in the classical repertoire when he recorded with Columbia in 1939.[2]
Early years and family
Hayes was born in Curryville, Georgia, on June 3, 1887, to William Hayes (died ca. 1898) and wife Fannie (or Fanny, née Mann; ca. 1848 – aft. 1920),[3][4] tenant farmers on the plantation where his mother had once been a slave; the Hayes farm appears to be on one of the tracts of land given by a plantation owner named Culpepper to some black people who worked for them. Roland's father, who was his first music teacher, often took him hunting and taught him to appr
Copyright ©aimbomb.pages.dev 2025