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About
Zenobia Powell Perry was born in 1908 to a well-educated, middle-class family in Oklahoma. Her father was a Black physician, and her mother was Creek Indian and Black. In 1925, Perry graduated from high school determined to study music, so she began her studies at Cecil Berryman Conservatory in 1929, and eventually went to the Tuskegee Institute where she also studied education.
After Tuskegee, Perry became part of a Black teacher training program headed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Perry’s first university faculty position was at Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical & Normal College, later called University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), from 1947 to 1955. From 1952 to 1954, Perry completed her master’s degree in composition at Wyoming University where she studied under Allan Arthur Willman, Darius Milhaud, and Charles Jones.
Perry began to compose more seriously during her time at Wyoming University in the early 1950s. Her output included a wide variety of vocal, choral, instrumental, and piano works. She drew influence from spirituals, which she grew up listening to her grandfather—a formerly enslaved man—sing. Black and Native American folklore, poetry, and music also informed her compositions, with her overall style incorporating a combination of contrapuntal, tonal, jazz, and folk techniques.
Perry’s all-Black hometown of Boley, Oklahoma was a source of compositional inspiration throughout her lifetime. She often composed works influenced by her environment, such as her her 1987 opera Tawawa House, whose plot was based on the history of the Underground Railroad in Wilberforce, Ohio—the town she lived in from 1955 until 1982 as a faculty member and composer-in-residence at Central State University.
Despite two divorces, the death of a son, and the challenges of raising a daughter on her own, Perry continued working towards advanced degrees while also working as a professor. In 1962, she joined the NAACP to aid in the civil rights struggle. Perry received numerous honors and awards, particularly after her retirement in 1982, related to her teaching, composing, and volunteer community work.
Perry’s works continue to be performed today by a devoted group of musicians—many of them her former students—as well as those who have only recently discovered her works. Perry’s compositions have also been performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, and West Virginia University Band and Orchestra.
As of 2023, only one of Perry’s works has been published, though her significant contributions to American music are increasingly referenced in recent scholarship. Zenobia Powell Perry died in 2004 at the age of 95, leaving behind a rich legacy.
–Amy Catherine Helms, Sophia Janevic
This biography was created in 2022 as part of The Savvy Singer, an EXCEL Lab course at the University of Michigan, School of Music, Theatre, and Dance and a collaboration with the Hampsong Foundation via the Classic Song Research Initiative.
This biography was edited in 2023 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.
Related Information
Songs
Alien
Zenobia Powell Perry
Donald Jeffrey Hayes
Song Collection: Threnody
Benediction
Zenobia Powell Perry
Donald Jeffrey Hayes
Song Collection: Threnody
Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Song CollectionZenobia Powell Perry
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Drizzle
Zenobia Powell Perry
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Song Collection: Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Life
Zenobia Powell Perry
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Song Collection: Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
On a Clean Book
Zenobia Powell Perry
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Song Collection: Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Pastourelle
Zenobia Powell Perry
Donald Jeffrey Hayes
Song Collection: Threnody
Poet
Zenobia Powell Perry
Donald Jeffrey Hayes
Song Collection: Threnody
Spring Song
Zenobia Powell Perry
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Song Collection: Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Sunset
Zenobia Powell Perry
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Song Collection: Cycle of Songs on Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Threnody
Song CollectionZenobia Powell Perry
Donald Jeffrey Hayes
Threnody
Zenobia Powell Perry
Donald Jeffrey Hayes
Song Collection: Threnody
Videos
Recordings
Soul and Reconciliation
(Maria Thompson Corley, Jonathan Bailey Holland, James Lee III, Zenobia Powell Perry, Rosephanye Powell, Dave Ragland and Richard Thompson)
2022
View recording
An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs
(H. Leslie Adams, David N. Baker, Margaret Bonds, Charles Samuel Brown, Henry T. Burleigh, Valerie Capers, Harriette Davison Watkins, Adolphus C. Hailstork, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Undine Smith Moore, Camille Nickerson, Robert Owens, Zenobia Powell Perry, Florence Price, Rosephanye Powell, Dave Ragland, Hale Smith, Irene Britton Smith and Brandon J Spencer)
2021
View recording
Books
Sheet Music
An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs - 60 Songs
Composer(s): H. Leslie Adams, David N. Baker, Margaret Bonds, Charles Brown, H. T. Burleigh, Valerie Capers, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Arthur Cunningham, Harriette Davison Watkins, William Dawson, Mark Fax, Bruce Forsythe, Antônio Carlos Gomes, Adolphus Hailstork, Jacqueline Hairston, Maud Cuney Hare, Jeraldine Herbison, Jonathan Holland, Sylvia Hollifield, Langston Hughes, J. Rosamond Johnson, Thomas Kerr, Lena McLin, Undine Smith Moore, Andre Myers, Camille Nickerson, Fred Onovwerosuoke, Eurydice Osterman, Robert Owens, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Zenobia Powell Perry, Rosephanye Powell, Florence Price, Dave Ragland, Nadine Shanti, Carlos Simon, Hale Smith, Irene Britton Smith, Brandon Spencer, Hilbert Stewart, Howard Swanson, George Walker, Aurelia Young
Song(s): Amazing Grace (H. Leslie Adams)
Christmas Lullaby (H. Leslie Adams)
Sence You Went Away (H. Leslie Adams)
The Heart of a Woman (H. Leslie Adams)
The Alarm Clock (David N. Baker)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (Margaret Bonds)
Caring (Charles Brown)
Desire (Charles Brown)
Your Eyes So Deep (H. T. Burleigh)
Your Lips Are Wine (H. T. Burleigh)
Autumn (Valerie Capers)
Elëanore (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor)
The Willow Song (Samuel Coleridge-Taylor)
Minakesh (Arthur Cunningham)
Stars (Harriette Davison Watkins)
Out in the Fields (William Dawson)
The Refused (Mark Fax)
With Rue My Heart Is Laden (Bruce Forsythe)
Suspiro d’alma (Antônio Carlos Gomes)
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking (Adolphus Hailstork)
Longing (Adolphus Hailstork)
Loveliest of Trees (Adolphus Hailstork)
Dormi, Jesu (Jacqueline Hairston)
Gardé Piti Mulet Là (Maud Cuney Hare)
I’ll Not Forget (Jeraldine Herbison)
Little Elegy (Jonathan Holland)
In Time of Silver Rain (Sylvia Hollifield)
The Founding Fathers (Langston Hughes)
This is My Land (Langston Hughes)
L’il Gal (J. Rosamond Johnson)
Soliloquy (Thomas Kerr)
Amazing Grace (Lena McLin)
The Year’s at the Spring (Lena McLin)
I Am in Doubt (Undine Smith Moore)
I Want to Die While You Love Me (Undine Smith Moore)
For a Poet (Andre Myers)
Chere, Mo Lemmé Toi (Camille Nickerson)
Gué, Gué, Solingaie (Camille Nickerson)
Mshila (Fred Onovwerosuoke)
Entreaty (I Am the Rose of Sharon) (Eurydice Osterman)
Could I but Ride Indefinite (Robert Owens)
Die Nacht (Robert Owens)
From the Dark Tower (Robert Owens)
The Lynching (Robert Owens)
The Secret (Robert Owens)
Madrigal (Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson)
O Children of Men (Zenobia Powell Perry)
I Want to Die While You Love Me (Rosephanye Powell)
Spring (Florence Price)
The Sum (Florence Price)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (Dave Ragland)
Mangez, Boulez (Eat, Drink, Be Merry) (Nadine Shanti)
Prayer (Carlos Simon)
Troubled Woman (Hale Smith)
Why Fades a Dream? (Irene Britton Smith)
Dream Variations (Brandon Spencer)
Spring Song (Hilbert Stewart)
One Day (Howard Swanson)
I Went to Heaven (George Walker)
Norris Swamp (Aurelia Young)
Voice Type: 36 Songs are for High Voice - Medium to High Voice
24 Songs are for Medium - Medium to Low Voice
Art Songs and Spirituals by African-American Women Composers (Vivian Taylor, ed.)
Composer(s): Margaret Bonds, Betty Jackson King, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Undine Smith Moore, Julia Perry, Zenobia Powell Perry, Florence Price
Song(s): Calvary (Spiritual) (1954) - Betty Jackson King
Come Down Angels (Spiritual) (1978) - Undine Smith Moore
Dry Bones (Spiritual) (1946) - Margaret Bonds
Free At Last (Spiritual) (1951) - Julia Perry
He's Got the Whole World In His Hand (Spiritual) (1963) - Margaret Bonds
I Am in Doubt (1975) - Undine Smith Moore
I'm a Poor Li'l Orphan in This Worl' (Spiritual) (1952) - Julia Perry
In the Springtime (1976) - Betty Jackson King
Is There Anybody Here That Loves My Jesus (Spiritual) (1981) - Undine Smith Moore
It's Me, O Lord (Spiritual) (1988) - Betty Jackson King
Lord, I Just Can't Keep from Cryin' (Spiritual) (1946) - Margaret Bonds
Love Let the Wind Cry… How I Adore Thee (1977) - Undine Smith Moore
My Dream (1935) - Florence B. Price
My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord (Spiritual) (1937) - Florence B. Price
Night (1946) - Florence B. Price
Song to the Dark Virgin (1926) - Florence B. Price
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1942) - Margaret Bonds
Three Dream Portraits (1959) - Margaret Bonds
Watch and Pray (Spiritual) (1972) - Undine Smith Moore