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Will Marion Cook
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Will Marion Cook
William Mercer Cook (January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944), better known as Will Marion Cook, was an African-American composer, pianist, orchestrator, lyricist, violinist, and choral director. Cook was a student of Antonín Dvořák. In 1919 he took his New York Syncopated Orchestra (Southern Syncopated Orchestra) to England for a command performance for King George V of the United Kingdom, and tour. Cook is probably best known for his popular songs and landmark Broadway musicals, featuring African-American creators, producers, and casts, such as Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cake Walk (1898) and In Dahomey (1903). The latter toured for four years, including in the United Kingdom and United States.
Cook served as musical director of the George Walker-Bert Williams Company, working with the comedy partners on Clorindy, In Dahomey, and several other musical successes.
In 1944, Cook was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was transported to the Harlem Hospital in June 1944. He died 29 days later, July 19, at the age of 75. Cook's grave is to be found in Washington, D.C's Woodlawn Cemetery.
Will Marion Cook (né William Mercer Cook) was born soon after the Civil War in 1869 in Washington, D.C., to John Hartwell Cook and his wife Isabel. The senior Cook had been in the first class of the Howard University School of Law, graduating in 1871 and becoming one of the first black lawyers to practice in Washington. He served as "chief clerk of the Freedmen's Bureau from 1867 until 1872 and as professor and dean of the Howard University Law School from 1876 until 1878." His parents were free people of color before the war, and stressed education; Cook had graduated from Oberlin College.
After John Cook died of tuberculosis in 1879, the widowed Isabel struggled to keep her family going. She eventually had to send all her three children away to live with other family. Will at age 10 had a violent altercation with a teacher who strapped him, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They were former slaves who had bought their freedom before the war. With them he heard what he described as "real Negro melodies" and folk music, during what he would later call his "soul period". After a year, his grandfather returned Will to his mother, believing it best for Will not to be in the South. Washington, D.C., had a sizeable community of African Americans, many free before the war, and had developed an educated class.
Soon after being reunited with his mother, Will decided to be serious about his music. He started to study violin at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio at age 14. Cook's musical talent was apparent at an early age. At Oberlin, he was a student of Frederick G. Doolittle, as well as Fenelon Rice, L. Celestia Wattles, and Calvin B. Cady. With help from members of the African-American community, his benefit recitals were sponsored in order to help him afford to study abroad.
From 1887 to 1889, Cook studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, working with violinist Heinrich Jacobson; Jacobson served as Chairman of the Orchestral Instruments Department. Jacobson was a former student of Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, considered one of the supreme musicians of the age. Some accounts state that Cook studied abroad for nine years, but this has not been documented.
In 1898 Cook married the young singer Abbie Mitchell; she was 14. They had a daughter, Marion Abigail Cook, in 1900, and a son, Will Mercer Cook, known as Mercer, in 1903. Their daughter was raised by family members as Mitchell herself had been. Marion later married dancer Louis Douglas. Will Mercer Cook became a professor of history at Howard University and later was appointed as United States Ambassador to Niger and Senegal.
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Will Marion Cook
William Mercer Cook (January 27, 1869 – July 19, 1944), better known as Will Marion Cook, was an African-American composer, pianist, orchestrator, lyricist, violinist, and choral director. Cook was a student of Antonín Dvořák. In 1919 he took his New York Syncopated Orchestra (Southern Syncopated Orchestra) to England for a command performance for King George V of the United Kingdom, and tour. Cook is probably best known for his popular songs and landmark Broadway musicals, featuring African-American creators, producers, and casts, such as Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cake Walk (1898) and In Dahomey (1903). The latter toured for four years, including in the United Kingdom and United States.
Cook served as musical director of the George Walker-Bert Williams Company, working with the comedy partners on Clorindy, In Dahomey, and several other musical successes.
In 1944, Cook was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was transported to the Harlem Hospital in June 1944. He died 29 days later, July 19, at the age of 75. Cook's grave is to be found in Washington, D.C's Woodlawn Cemetery.
Will Marion Cook (né William Mercer Cook) was born soon after the Civil War in 1869 in Washington, D.C., to John Hartwell Cook and his wife Isabel. The senior Cook had been in the first class of the Howard University School of Law, graduating in 1871 and becoming one of the first black lawyers to practice in Washington. He served as "chief clerk of the Freedmen's Bureau from 1867 until 1872 and as professor and dean of the Howard University Law School from 1876 until 1878." His parents were free people of color before the war, and stressed education; Cook had graduated from Oberlin College.
After John Cook died of tuberculosis in 1879, the widowed Isabel struggled to keep her family going. She eventually had to send all her three children away to live with other family. Will at age 10 had a violent altercation with a teacher who strapped him, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They were former slaves who had bought their freedom before the war. With them he heard what he described as "real Negro melodies" and folk music, during what he would later call his "soul period". After a year, his grandfather returned Will to his mother, believing it best for Will not to be in the South. Washington, D.C., had a sizeable community of African Americans, many free before the war, and had developed an educated class.
Soon after being reunited with his mother, Will decided to be serious about his music. He started to study violin at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio at age 14. Cook's musical talent was apparent at an early age. At Oberlin, he was a student of Frederick G. Doolittle, as well as Fenelon Rice, L. Celestia Wattles, and Calvin B. Cady. With help from members of the African-American community, his benefit recitals were sponsored in order to help him afford to study abroad.
From 1887 to 1889, Cook studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, working with violinist Heinrich Jacobson; Jacobson served as Chairman of the Orchestral Instruments Department. Jacobson was a former student of Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, considered one of the supreme musicians of the age. Some accounts state that Cook studied abroad for nine years, but this has not been documented.
In 1898 Cook married the young singer Abbie Mitchell; she was 14. They had a daughter, Marion Abigail Cook, in 1900, and a son, Will Mercer Cook, known as Mercer, in 1903. Their daughter was raised by family members as Mitchell herself had been. Marion later married dancer Louis Douglas. Will Mercer Cook became a professor of history at Howard University and later was appointed as United States Ambassador to Niger and Senegal.
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