Profiles in Black History is a project of our Justice Works Anti-Racism Team. A new profile will be spotlighted every day during Black History Month.
Nevilla Ottley-Adjahoe
Nevilla Ottley-Adjahoe
“Nevilla Eloise Ottley-Adjahoe is the founder and principal of the Ottley Music School, which was established in 1973. She is an author, conductor, pianist, organist, and music educator for over 50 years. In that time, she has helped countless students and musicians not only realize their full musical potential, but also develop habits that have qualified them [to] lead successful careers in various occupations. Nevilla was born in Trinidad, to Neville Ethelbert Ottley and Myra Eloise Grosvenor Ottley. The recipient of a rich musical inheritance from both sides of her family, at age four she sang as a soloist on the children’s pilot radio program for “Your Story Hour” with “Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue”... [S]he also started piano lessons with her mom and at age ten with June Simms, her father’s accompanist and a pivotal person in her development as a pianist. … She studied organ for three years under Professor Allan Carr, at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. She graduated from Andrews University (AU) in Michigan, with a B.Mus. degree in music education in 1971, and an M.A. in music history and organ performance under Dr. C. Warren Becker in 1972. She earned a master’s of music degree in conducting in 1980 at The Catholic University of America (CUA) under Lloyd Geisler, associate conductor of the National Symphony; and Drs. Laura Jeanette Wells and Evelyn Davidson White, in choral conducting. … Ottley has produced masterworks including operas of black and white composers. Besides churches, she has been extensively involved in conducting choral groups, many with orchestral ensembles. … Since what she refers to as her “enlightenment,” Ottley has presented a number of music seminars on “Black Composers of Classical Music from the Renaissance to the Present” at schools and churches. … Ottley has authored several books for students on Black composers and performers.”
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Link for more info: http://ottleymusic.org/team/tim-caroll/
Rebecca Riley is a writer and filmmaker who lives in North County San Diego.