Dett, R(obert) Nathaniel (1882–1943)

Canadian composer, pianist, and conductor. He was the first black American student to graduate from Oberlin Conservatory. He became director of music at the Hampton Institute, where he was an active composer, a concert pianist, and an editor of collections of spirituals.

He was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. After graduating, he went on to study music at Columbia University, Harvard, the Eastman School of Music, and with Nadia Boulanger in France. At the Hampton Institute, he also conducted a nationally acclaimed choir. As a composer, his piano works were in the 19th-century romantic style, but in his choral works, such as ‘Listen to the Lamb’ (1914) and ‘The Ordering of Moses’ (1937), he drew on black spirituals.