Why was roland hayes important

"Largely forgotten today outside specialist circles, the African-American tenor Roland Hayes (1887–1976) was a much admired and internationally celebrated artist during his lifetime. As the authors of this substantial and well-documented new biography suggest, a reluctance to broadcast and a relatively limited recording career have prevented wider circulation of his fame in our own day. . . The authors detail his long career meticulously, as well as his complicated private life."

~BBC Music Magazine

"Well researched, with several primary sources and newspapers cited, the volume includes 48 illustrations of Hayes and other musicians. . . . Highly recommended."

~Choice

"An impressive work of scholarship, shedding light on a significant figure in American music and the time in which he lived."

~Epoch Times

"What we have here is a thorough and well-documented account of the life of a most interesting artist, one who was both a racial pioneer and a fine interpreter of both European art music and African-American spirituals."

~ARSC Journal

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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

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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