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This coming Thursday will mark the 90th anniversary of the 1934 premiere performance of African American William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. It is said that the Philly audience rose to their feet cheering at the end of the second movement and they remained on their feet until the end of the last, third, movement.

On Nov. 20, 1934, just 6 days later, Stokowski and the orchestra performed it at Carnegie Hall and again brought the audience to its feet. Dawson himself was called back to the stage several times to take bows after his symphony ended.

Stokowski conducted four back-to-back performances of the piece, one of which was nationally broadcast by CBS radio. One New York critic called it "the most distinctive and promising American symphonic proclamation which has so far been achieved." Olin Downes, writing in The New York Times, noted: "This music has dramatic feeling, a racial sensuousness and directness of melodic speech." Below, portrait of William Dawson and also a youtube recording of Negro Folk Symphony played by the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2020. Enjoy.