White, Clarence Cameron

Composer, violinist, educator, and author. Major participant in the Harlem Renaissance.

Composer, violinist, educator. White and John Frederick Matheus collaborated on "Ouanga" (1932) and "Tambour" (1929).

Clarence Cameron White was a composer, violinist, educator and author. He studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and in London, England. He also studied with Will Marion Cook and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who is credited with inspiring him to become a composer. White frequently used folk music as a source for his compositions. He collaborated with John F. Matheus, a professor of Romance languages (librettist), on two works, "Tambour" and the opera "Ouanga," which was based on the life of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of the slave leaders of the Haitian Revolution. White's other major works include the ballet score for "A Night in San Souci," the orchestral work "Elegy," "Symphony in D Minor," a cantata "Heritage," and "Bandanna Sketches," composed for the violin. He also wrote "Dance Rhapsody," "Pantomime," and "Poeme: For Orchestra."

White's teaching career spanned the Boston public school system (1912-1923), his directorship of music at West Virginia State College (1924-1931), and Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where as director of music he conducted the Hampton Institute Choir from 1933 to 1935.

Clarence Cameron White was a composer, violinist, educator and author. He studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and in London, England. He also studied with Will Marion Cook and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who is credited with inspiring him to become a composer. White frequently used folk music as a source for his compositions. He collaborated with John F. Matheus, a professor of Romance languages (librettist), on two works, "Tambour" and the opera "Ouanga," which was based on the life of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, one of the slave leaders of the Haitian Revolution. White's other major works include the ballet score for "A Night in San Souci," the orchestral work "Elegy," "Symphony in D Minor," a cantata "Heritage," and "Bandanna Sketches," composed for the violin. He also wrote "Dance Rhapsody," "Pantomime," and "Poeme: For Orchestra.".

White's teaching career spanned the Boston public school system (1912-1923), his directorship of music at West Virginia State College (1924-1931), and Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, where as director of music he conducted the Hampton Institute Choir from 1933 to 1935.

Clarence Cameron White was an accomplished violinist and a major participant in the Black Renaissance (Harlem Renaissance). His career accomplishments and well as relationships he cultivated during his career are well documented in the correspondence series, which contains letters from such notables as Phillippa Schuyler, W.C. Handy, Henry O. Tanner and Alain Locke.

White spent significant periods of time in Europe where he was trained by renowned musicians, including celebrated African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, renowned Russian violinist Michael Zacherewitsch and Raoul Laparra, French opera composer. In the earlier years, White was as student of Will Marion Cook and Joseph Douglass when his family relocated to Washington, D.C. In his unpublished autobiography, located with in the writings series, White writes of these and other experiences, including his childhood friendships with Anita Patti Brown and Roland Hayes.

The music instruction White received at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and at Howard University (1894-1895) eventually led him to the teaching field. In 1924 he served as the director of music at West Virginia State, and later served as chair of the music department at Hampton Institute (1932-1935). His career in academe is documented in the teaching material, correspondence and program series.