page_title: William Grant Still
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: William Grant Still / Life
caption_attribution_description: English: William Grant Still residence, 1262 S. Victoria Ave., Los Angeles, CA, just north of Pico Blvd. This is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #169.
context_page_description: William Grant Still, Jr. was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, nine operas, over thirty choral works, plus art songs, chamber music and works for solo instruments.
  Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers", Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera. Still is known primarily for his first symphony, Afro-American Symphony, which was until 1950 the most widely performed symphony composed by an American.
  Born in Mississippi, he grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and later Edgard Varèse.
  Of note, Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television.
  Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, Still is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance movement.
context_section_description: William Grant Still, Jr. was born on May 11, 1895, in Woodville, Mississippi. He was the son of two teachers, Carrie Lena Fambro (1872–1927) and William Grant Still Sr (1871–1895). His father was a partner in a grocery store and performed as a local bandleader. William Grant Still Sr. died when his infant son was three months old.
  Still's mother moved with him to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she taught high school English. She met and in 1904 married Charles B. Shepperson, who nurtured his stepson William's musical interests by taking him to operettas and buying Red Seal recordings of classical music, which the boy greatly enjoyed. The two attended a number of performances by musicians on tour. His maternal grandmother Anne Fambro sang African-American spirituals to him.
  Still started violin lessons in Little Rock at the age of 15. He taught himself to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, double bass, cello and viola, and showed a great interest in music. At 16 years old, he graduated from M. W. Gibbs High School in Little Rock.
  His mother wanted him to go to medical school, so Still pursued a Bachelor of Science degree program at Wilberforce University, a historically black college in Ohio. Still became a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He conducted the university band, learned to play various instruments, and started to compose and to do orchestrations. He left Wilberforce without graduating.
  He was awarded scholarships to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Friedrick Lehmann and George Andrews. He also studied privately with the modern French composer Edgard Varèse and the American composer George Whitefield Chadwick.
  On October 4, 1915, Still married Grace Bundy, whom he had met while they were both at Wilberforce. They had a son, William III, and three daughters, Gail, June, and Caroline. They separated in 1932 and divorced February 6, 1939. On February 8, 1939, he married pianist Verna Arvey, driving to Tijuana for the ceremony because interracial marriage was illegal in California. They had a daughter, Judith Anne, and a son, Duncan. Still's granddaughter is journalist Celeste Headlee by way of Judith Anne.
  On December 1, 1976, his home was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #169. It is located at 1262 Victoria Avenue in Oxford Square, Los Angeles.
caption: William Grant Still Residence at 1262 South Victoria Avenue, 2012
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot G10", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2012:10:31 18:53:38", "Image ExifOffset": "224", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "778", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6922", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/400", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:10:31 16:59:15", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:10:31 16:59:15", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "540241/62500", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "97/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "13761/1000", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3328", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2662", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "400000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "400000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}