Preview
Creation Date
2015-01-01
Description
1 page, A Congressional Tribute to Dr. Eva A. Jessye
Digital Collection
Jessye, Eva (1895-1992) Collection, 1885-2027
Collection Number
SpC MS 0009
Finding Aid
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/fa/9/
Object Type
Manuscript
Transcription
Congressional Record, 99th Congress, First Session, 1985
(Issue Date: September 26, 1985)
A CONGRESSIONAL TRIBUTE TO DR. EVA A. JESSYE
HON. GLENN M. ANDERSON
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, September 26, 1985
Mr. ANDERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Dr. Eva Au Jessye, who is being honored from September 14 to October 4 by California State University, Long Beach, with a symposium on authentic North American music. The symposium is entitled “Eva Jessye's America: The Legacy of Porgy and Bess.”
Eva Jessye was born in 1895 in Coffeeville, KS. For more than 70 of her 90 years, she has struggled to keep authentic North American music alive through professional choruses, especially the Eva Jessye Choirs. In addition to performing, Eva has also arranged and published rare folksongs, established collections of North American music and memorabilia at such institutions as the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS, and she continues to give lectures and workshops on American music.
Two great American composers have chosen Eva to train the choruses for their operas. In 1934, Virgil Thompson had her audition and train the chorus for his production of Gertrude Stein's ''Four Saints in Three Acts.'' The following year, George Gershwin chose Eva to train the chorus for the premiere performance of ''Porgy and Bess.'' She was the only black member of the directing staff for this ''all-black opera,'' which has also been called our national opera.
During the 1920's Eva and her Dixie Jubilee Singers were regulars at the Major Bowes Capitol Theater, where she met her violin teacher, the late Eugene Ormandy. On the Major Bowes Family Radio Hour, Eva's choir backed up such singers as Paul Robeson, Rudy Vallee, and Lawrence Tibbett. Conductors Leopold Stokowski, Arturo Toscanini, Alexander Smallens, and Eugene Ormandy have directed the successor to the Dixie Jubilee Singers, the Eva Jessye Choir.
Eva is also a poet and commentator on a broad range of social, political, and racial issues. In 1923 and 1927, Robert Kerlin published three of her poems in ''Negro Poets and Their Poems.'' Eva has had more than 50 poems published, some of them award winning. During the symposium, Eva will read her own and Langston Hughes' poetry. She has also been named Kansas Ambassador for the Arts.
In her hometown of Pittsburg, KS, Eva built a yellow brick road to her house that is now a historical site. My wife, Lee, joins me in wishing Dr. Eva Jessye and her 100-year-old aunt Celie continued success on their stroll down the yellow brick road of life.
Identifier
EV_9_cer033
Image Format
Text
Location
District of Columbia -- Washington
Digitization Date
2015-07-10
Publisher Digital
Pittsburg State University, Axe Library, Special Collections
Rights
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Keywords
Jessye, Eva, 1895-1992;
