Hailing from Cowpens, South Carolina, Uzee Brown Jr. is a multifaceted musician who has been a major figure in African American classical music for the past thirty-five years. He is a former president of the National Association of Negro Musicians, co-founder of Onyx Opera Atlanta (a non-profit operatic ensemble which seeks to perform works by African-American composers alongside western European operatic repertoire), and is the chair of the Division of Creative and Performing Arts at one of the foremost traditionally Black colleges in the United States, Morehouse College.

As a performer, Brown was a part of the world premiere of Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha, where he played Parson Alltalk. His focus on African American music is also deeply ingrained in his compositions and arrangements, which includes commissions of protest songs, arrangements of previously unarranged spiritual melodies, and more. He studied composition with T.J. Anderson, African American folk music with Wendell P. Whalum, and African American Art Song with Willis Patterson.

–Jack Morin

This profile was created during the 2023-2024 academic year as part of the Song of America Fellowship Program, a project of the Classic Song Research Initiative between the Hampsong Foundation and the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.

Bibliography:

.“.” Contemporary Black Biography. . Encyclopedia.Com. 19 Sep. 2023 .” Encyclopedia.Com, Encyclopedia.com, 26 Sept. 2023, www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/brown-uzee-jr-1950.