Music:
Member Since: 2/28/2008
Band Website: myrtlehart.org
Band Members: Our membership includes classical instrumentalists, vocalists, composers, researchers and conductors of African descent from Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and the Caribbean. MHS believes that the diverse backgrounds of our members ameliorate the future of classical music.
Influences: Myrtle Hart was born in 1878 to musical parents, Henry and Sarah F. Henry was principally a violinist and composer, but he played many other instruments. Sarah F. was a concert pianist. The couple had five (5) children who began their musical education at an early age. Myrtle was the second oldest child. She and her sisters, Estella, Willie, and Hazel became professional musicians playing throughout the Midwest. (The last child, Clothielde, was born in 1890 and was therefore too young to join the family string ensemble.) The group was soon in demand to perform for leading society balls and receptions.Beginning harp lessons with her father, Myrtle continued her studies with Edmund Schuëcker (November 16, 1860-November 9, 1911), a composer as well as a harpist in Theodore Thomas's Symphony Orchestra in Chicago. German-born Thomas was the Founder & Music Director of the Chicago Symphony. Schuëcker served as the CSO harpist from 1891-1900.At the age of 15, Myrtle Hart was asked to perform at the British Exhibit at Chicago's World Fair in 1893. The Chicago Daily News (Tuesday, July 28, 1895) toted her as a "GIFTED HARP PLAYER" and claimed that she was the "Only Colored Woman Who Performs On This Instrument." Shortly after her appearance, she acquired a harp with the help of one of her father's patron, Colonel Eli Lilly. Myrtle toured coast to coast as a solo concert harpist.We have musicologist D. Antoinette Handy to thank for much of our knowledge on Myrtle Hart. Here is an excerpt from her book Black Women in American Bands and Orchestras:One of the earliest black woman string players of whom we have some details was Myrtle Hart of the Henry Hart Family Orchestra. This group furnished the best possible music for dances in the state of Indiana, from the last decade of the previous century until the father’s death in 1915. Based in Indianapolis, the group entertained political dignitaries visiting the city, played for “the bloods†locally and worked plush summer resorts throughout the Midwest (“Henry Hart and His Family of Musicians Always in Demand,†Indianapolis News, April 6, 1901).Myrtle Hart (Frye) started out in the Hart ensemble as pianist in a piano-violin duo while still in her teens, but before long performed professionally as harpist with her violinist father. Her sister Willie also started out as pianist in the ensemble, but as other daughters were born (and soon brought into the musical fold) she was shifted to the cello. Myrtle was apparently the principal feature of the “father-plus-five-daughters†orchestra. She studied with Edmond Schnecker [sic], solo harpist with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra. Her “elite†musical involvements were primarily as soloist. She performed at the British exhibit of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and played solo recitals in black churches in the same city and in Washington, D.C. She appeared with a small vocal and instrumental ensemble at Philadelphia Odd Fellows’ Temple in 1903.Myrtle’s training and experience suggest that she was the harpist whose services were utilized whenever “highbrow†instrumental music making called for her instrument. But in 1915 Myrtle Hart Frye was a harpist in the orchestras of one of the leading theatres in Chicago (Indianapolis Freeman, February 13, 1915, p. 3).Handy, D. Antoinette. Black women in American bands & orchestras. 2nd Edition. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1998: 65-66.
Type of Label: Indie
