Portia White
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Portia May White (June 24, 1911Template:Spaced ndashFebruary 13, 1968) was a Canadian contralto, known for becoming the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve international fame. Growing up as part of her father's church choir in Halifax, Nova Scotia, White competed in local singing competitions as a teenager and later trained at the Halifax Conservatory of Music. In 1941 and 1944, she made her national and international debuts as a singer, receiving critical acclaim for her performances of both classical European music and African-American spirituals. White later completed tours throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
When vocal difficulties and cancer eventually contributed to her retirement in 1952, White settled in Toronto and subsequently taught young Canadian musicians such as Lorne Greene, Dinah Christie, Don Francks, Robert Goulet and Anne Marie Moss. One of White's final major public appearances was a special command performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1964.
White was declared a person of national historic significance by the Government of Canada. Her original supporters in Nova Scotia went on to establish the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, awarding annual arts scholarships to both emerging and established local artists, and the government of Nova Scotia continues to award an annual Portia White Prize. In 2007, White was posthumously awarded a lifetime achievement award by the East Coast Music Association.
Early life and familyEdit
Portia May White was born June 24, 1911, in Truro, Nova Scotia,<ref name="ce">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the third of 13 children born to Izie Dora (White) and William Andrew White. Her mother was a descendant of Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, while her father was the son of former slaves from Virginia; he moved to Canada independently. William attended Acadia University in Nova Scotia, later becoming the first Black Canadian to receive a Doctor of Divinity from Acadia. After the First World War, the White family moved to Halifax, and William became the minister of Cornwallis Street Baptist Church.<ref name="ce" />
Many other members of Portia White's family went on to achieve distinction in Canadian political and cultural life, including her brothers Jack, a noted Canadian labour union leader; Bill, the first Canadian of African heritage to run for political office in Canada;<ref name="ce" /> and Lorne, a regular performer for television show Singalong Jubilee.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> White also became aunt to Senator Donald Oliver<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and political commentator Sheila White.<ref name="ce" />
Portia White began her musical career at the age of six as a choir member with the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church,<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web
}}</ref> where her mother was also the musical director.<ref name=":2" /> As White grew older, she became the choir director and assisted with church fundraising by singing on her father's weekly radio show.<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref> In an interview later in life, White explained that her love of music and performing had developed early:
Nobody ever told me to sing, I was born singing. I think that if nobody had ever talked to me, I wouldn't be able to communicate in any other way but by singing. I was always bowing in my dreams and singing before people and parading across the stage as a very little girl.<ref name=":5" />Template:Rp
As a teenager, White entered a local singing competition with her sister June, the pair performing an aria from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. They won first prize. Although White wanted to pursue a singing career, she could not afford professional training at the time.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite journal</ref>
White entered Dalhousie University in 1929, studying to become a teacher. From the early 1930s she taught in Africville and Lucasville, two small Halifax communities that were predominately Black Nova Scotian, and during this time White was finally able to begin paying for vocal lessons.<ref name=":2" /> She competed regularly at the Halifax Music Festival, winning the Helen Kennedy Silver Cup in 1935, 1937 and 1938,<ref name="ce" /> until the festival organizers finally decided to award her the cup permanently.<ref name=":2" />
In 1939, White won a scholarship to continue her musical training at the Halifax Conservatory of Music with noted Italian baritone Ernesto Vinci,<ref name="ce" /> and Vinci taught her using the bel canto vocal style.<ref name=":5" /> White soon gave her first formal recital, and after the start of the Second World War she continued singing in concerts and radio shows.<ref name="Whites" /> She won awards at provincial music festivals,<ref name=":3" /> and in mid-1941 she met Edith Read, a visiting headmistress from Branksome Hall in Toronto, who offered to arrange new performing opportunities for White.<ref name=":2" />
Singing career and later lifeEdit
In November 1941, with the support of Read, 30-year-old White made her national debut as a singer in Toronto at the Eaton Auditorium.<ref name=":2" /> She was favourably received by audiences, even receiving a career management offer from Oxford University Press the day after her performance.<ref name="books" /> Despite encountering racism as she sought out new performance bookings,<ref name="ce" /> White subsequently toured across Canada, performing concerts at venues that included the Governor General's Rideau Hall residence.<ref name="books" />
White sang both classical European music and African-American spirituals,<ref name="Whites" /> and works by Harry T. Burleigh were a constant part of her concert repertoire.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite book</ref> Alongside English pieces, she performed music in Italian, German, French and Spanish,<ref name=":5" /> and White's three-octave range attracted critical acclaim.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Hector Charlesworth's review in The Globe and Mail observed White's "pungent expression and beauty of utterance", while a critic with the Toronto Evening Telegram said she had a "coloured and beautifully shaded contraltoTemplate:Nbsp... It is a natural voice, a gift from heaven."<ref name="ce" /> White was compared to noted American contralto Marian Anderson.<ref name="Whites" />
After auditioning for Metropolitan Opera general manager Edward Johnson, White made her international debut in New York City in 1944, becoming the first Canadian to perform at New York's Town Hall performance space.<ref name="ce" /> The New York Times reported her performance as "remarkable,"<ref name="books" /> and Paul Bowles of the New York Herald Tribune wrote that "White, contralto, showed the publicTemplate:Nbsp... that she not only has a magnificent vocal instrument, but that she also has sufficient musicianship and intelligence to do what she wishes with it."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
White went on to sing at many more concerts across the United States. The province of Nova Scotia and the city of Halifax provided new financial support for the rising star, purchasing a white fox cape for White to wear at performances.<ref name="books" /> In 1945, she signed a contract with artist agency Columbia Concerts Incorporated.<ref name="ce" /> A three-month tour of Central and South America and the Caribbean followed in 1946,<ref name=":2" /> and she sang in France and Switzerland in 1948. White was the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve international fame.<ref name="ce" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Vocal problems, an exhausting itinerary,<ref name="Whites" /> and an eventual diagnosis of breast cancer<ref name=":2" /> later contributed to White's early retirement from public singing in 1952, and she settled in Toronto, where she studied with sopranos Gina Cigna and Irene Jessner at the Royal Conservatory of Music. White became a vocal instructor herself and taught both at Branksome Hall and privately.<ref name="ce" /> She went on to teach some of Canada's up-and-coming musical talent,<ref name="Whites">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and her students included singers Lorne Greene, Dinah Christie, Don Francks, Robert Goulet,<ref name=":1" /> Anne Marie Moss<ref name=":4">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Judith Lander.<ref name=":5" /> White appeared in Halifax for a few rare performances during the 50s; although she announced her intention to resume a full-time singing career, her return to the concert circuit never fully materialized.<ref name="Whites" />
In 1964, she sang in a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, at the opening of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. This was one of her last major concerts.<ref name=":4" /><ref name="books">Template:Cite book</ref>
White died in Toronto of cancer on February 13, 1968, aged 56.<ref name="ronfanfair"/>
Legacy and honoursEdit
In 1944, White's supporters in Nova Scotia formed the Nova Scotia Talent Trust to provide her with financial assistance for her singing career. The Trust went on to establish annual scholarships for other Nova Scotian artists,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref> and continues to award the Portia White Award to artists who show "exceptional commitment and potential in voice."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Nova Scotia provincial government also awards a Portia White Prize for "cultural and artistic excellence,"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the 1998 inaugural Portia White Prize was awarded to Nova Scotian poet George Elliott Clarke, White's great nephew.<ref name="ce" />
White has been declared a person of national historic significance by the Government of Canada,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and she was featured in a special issue of Millennium postage stamps celebrating Canadian achievement.<ref name="Whites" /> At the 2007 East Coast Music Awards, White was posthumously honoured with a Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref name="ce" /> She is the namesake of Portia White Court, a Halifax street,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as the Portia White Atrium in Citadel High School.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> In 2017, the Portia White Youth Award was established as part of the African Nova Scotian Music Awards.<ref name=":0" /> In 2022, Branksome Hall unveiled a plaque honouring White on its campus as part of a student-led commemorative ceremony, with guests George Elliott Clarke, singer Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, and White's niece, Sheila White, also in attendance.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
White has been the subject of Lance Woolaver's play Portia White: First You Dream (also known simply as Portia),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Sylvia Hamilton's documentary Portia White: Think on Me,<ref name="ce" /> and George Elliott Clarke's book Portia White.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A new opera entitled Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White by HAUI and Sean Mayes premiered in June 2024 and was produced by the Canadian Opera Company<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The show made history as the first time a black composer, librettist and stage director have worked on the COC stage.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A portrait of White by Hedley Rainnie is on permanent display at Government House, Nova Scotia in honour of her contributions to the arts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
DiscographyEdit
- Think on Me (1968, White House Records) WH-6901<ref name="ce" />
- Great Voices of Canada, Vol 5. White et al. Analekta AN 2 7806<ref name="ce" />
- First You Dream (1999. C. White) W001-2<ref name="ce" />
- Library and Archives Canada also holds audio recordings of White's live performances.<ref name="ce" />
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Template:Cite journal
- Clarke, George Elliot. 2019. Portia White: A Portrait in Words. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing. Template:ISBN
- Gauthier, Natasha. 2020. "Where is BLACK OPERA in Canada." Opera Canada 6, no. 2 (Winter): 65–68.
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- Goodall, Lian. 2008. Singing Towards the Future: The Story of Portia White. Toronto: Dundurn Press. Template:ISBN
- Hamilton, Sylvia D. 2004. "A Daughter's Journey." Canadian Woman Studies 23, no. 2. (Winter): 6–12.
- Hamilton, Sylvia D. 2009. "Searching for Portia White." In Rain/Drizzle/Fog: Film and Television in Atlantic Canada, edited by Darrell Varga, 259–287. Calgary: University of Calgary Press.
- Template:Cite journal
External linksEdit
- "A Tribute to My Aunt Portia White" by former Senator Donald Oliver
- Archived Interviews with Portia White on CBC News
- Celebrating Portia White (with music clips) on CBC News
- Dalhousie Originals: Portia White from Dalhousie University
- Photos from stage play Portia (2017) Template:Webarchive from Victoria Playhouse Petrolia
- Portia White online biography (1995) archived from Western Washington University