Sigma Alpha Iota

Spring 2021 12 12 P A N P I P E S MUSIC HISTORY S oprano Chantal L. Braziel, an alumna of the Alpha Mu chapter at Carnegie Mellon University, has joined a cause near and dear to her heart. "I am in the process of helping restore the National Negro Opera Company, an African American Opera company that was founded by Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson," she shared. "e building is a national landmark in Pittsburgh, PA, and Madame Dawson used the company to provide young singers performance opportunities in the community and beyond. Unfortunately, it is considered one of the 11 most endangered places in the nation, and is on the verge of being lost forever." e National Negro Opera Company (NNOC) was founded in 1941 and was the first African-American opera company in the United States. e three-story Queen Anne-style house at 7101 Apple Street was used as office and studio space, while the company toured the country. It was once a grand place of refuge and inspiration for artists, musicians, and students. e website shares: "For locals and visitors alike, this opera house was a bedrock of culture, education, and artistry for black people in the Pittsburgh community." Opera members and general visitors to the site included La Julia Rhea, Robert McFerrin, Lena Horne, Lillian Evanti, Cab Calloway, and Sarah Vaughan. Mary Cardwell Dawson was a musician and teacher born in Madison, NC in 1894. Madame Dawson learned to sing in the choir of her church and enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music, the only African American in her class. At the age of 31, she graduated with degrees in voice and piano and continued her studies at the Chicago Musical College in New York. Realizing that there were no opportunities for African American opera singers, she returned to Pittsburgh in 1927 with her husband Walter Dawson. She opened the Cardwell Dawson School of Music in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA, which remained open until 1941. Madame Dawson founded the NNOC in Pittsburgh in 1941 to provide talented African American singers with opportunities denied them by unjust Jim Crow segregation. She trained students in voice and classical music for 21 years and produced acclaimed opera performances in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Washington. e NNOC repertoire included Aida, La Traviata, and Carmen, among others. e NNOC also promoted works by African American opera composers, including R. Nathaniel Dett's e Ordering of Moses and Clarence Cameron White's Ouanga, Ouanga. e NNOC had chapters in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Pittsburgh, and Red Bank, NJ. e first African-American man to sing with the Metropolitan Opera, Robert McFerrin, was a member of the NNOC. e opera company disbanded in 1962 upon Dawson's death and the house transitioned to a boarding house. is past March 27th, SAI Chantal Braziel performed in a virtual benefit concert through the Coalition of African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA) to raise awareness for the preservation of the National Negro Opera Company (4caapa.org). She beautifully performed the spiritual Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child, arranged by Moses Hogan. In January, Chantal and a colleague created the Opera Challenge, where they perform selections outside of the opera company to create fundraising and awareness of the restoration project. e opera challenge encourages every artist to perform selections of their choice, explain the importance of the cause, and encourages other artists to do the same. Saving a Historical Landmark At left, Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson, At left, Madame Mary Cardwell Dawson, founder of the National Negro Opera Company. founder of the National Negro Opera Company. Above, the Opera House on Apple Street in Above, the Opera House on Apple Street in 1941. At right 1941. At right, Alpha Mu initiate , Alpha Mu initiate Chantal Braziel Chantal Braziel perform performing on the steps of the opera house. ing on the steps of the opera house. To learn more about the NNOC or to contribute to the project, visit: nationaloperahouse.org

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