On January 12, Everett Lee died at the age of 105 in Malmö, Sweden, where he had lived since the 1960s. This former violinist was the first African-American musician to conduct a symphony orchestra in a southern state of the United States, a Broadway and New York City Opera production.
Everett Lee was spotted and hired by Leonard Bernstein
In the United States, Everett Lee is a true legend. Born in 1916 in West Virginia, he discovered music through his meeting with conductor Artur Rodziński while working as a waiter in a hotel in Cleveland. Encouraged by the Polish maestro, he studied the violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music. It was as a violinist (and oboist) that he made his debut in 1943 on Broadway with the orchestra that accompanied the show. Carmen Jones, inspired by Carmen the George Bizet.
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During this series of the show, the titular bandleader falls ill and Everett Lee replaces him. And it was during one of these performances, which he attended, that Leonard Bernstein spotted him and asked him to work with him. 2 years later, in 1945, Bernstein asked him to take over the musical direction of his new musical On the town. Everett Lee thus becomes the first African-American conductor to lead an orchestra in a major Broadway production.
Everett Lee founded an interracial orchestra composed of American musicians of all origins
In 1946, as a violinist this time, Everett Lee reunited with Leonard Bernstein, who conducted him with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The following year Everett Lee stood out by founding an interracial orchestra, the Cosmopolitan Little Symphony, made up of Americans of all origins as well as women. His fame grew in the United States to the point that in 1953 he was invited to conduct a concert in Louisville (Kentucky). A first for an African-American conductor in a southern state still marked at the time by the consequences of racial segregation.
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Everett Lee was also the first African-American maestro to conduct the New York City Opera in a production of The Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi in 1955 before directing Bohemian by Giacomo Puccini the following year. In the 1960s, he decided to exercise his talents in Germany and then in Sweden, where he lived until the end of his life. His rich career has allowed him to conduct major orchestras around the world, from Paris to Bogota via Saint-Petersburg, Buenos Aires, Berlin or Barcelona. Everett Lee conducted, at age 89, his last concert in 2005 in… Louisville. Quite a symbol!
Philippe Gault
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