Mildred Katharine Ellis

Mildred Katharine Ellis (1906–2004) was a pianist, music educator, and musicologist. Ellis organized the first Black music festival, the Negro Music Festival, that was for an integrated audience in Johnson City, Tennessee.

Ellis was born on September 20, 1906, in Johnson City, Tennessee. Ellis was the youngest of four children. Her father passed away when she was three and her mother died when was 19. Ellis' sister was Bertha Ellis.

Education

Ellis graduated as valedictorian from Langston High School in 1924. She then went on to attend Fisk University, majoring in French and music. Ellis completed additional graduate student courses in French at the University of Michigan from 1936 to 1937 and in 1937, she earned an A.M. degree in music theory in composition.

Additionally, she studied at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on a scholarship from 1939-1940 and 1945-1947. In the summer of 1941, she studied advanced research in music theory at Harvard University. In 1954, she received an M.A. degree in musicology from Indiana University, and minored in music theory and French. She earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1969, with a dissertation titled "The French Piano Character Piece of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries."

Ellis also studied with Romanian concert pianist Irma Wolpe and German composer Stefan Wolpe.

Career

Ellis not only worked at several different institutions, but she was also a pianist and accompanist performer. She taught high school English and French and served as the choral director at Christiansburg Institute in Cambridge, Virginia, from 1931 to 1936. Additionally, she taught at Harris High School in Mississippi; Johnson C. Smith College in North Carolina; Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (AM&N); Southern University in Louisiana; and Howard University in Washington, D.C. Ellis also worked in both administrative and teaching positions at Morristown College in Tennessee and Wilberforce University in Ohio. She also taught classes at George Fox College in Oregon.

Ellis was involved in several professional organizations, including Mu Phi Epsilon, Phi Lambda Theta, the American Association of University Professors, the American Musicological Society, Music Teachers National Association, and the National Guild of Piano Teachers.

Negro Music Festival

Ellis returned to Johnson City to organize the "Negro Music Festival," which she worked with a local white organization, Wednesday Morning Music Club, to host on the campus of the East Tennessee Teachers' college amphitheater. East Tennessee State College was normally a racially segregated campus. It was the first time a Black music festival in the South was presented by a white music club. The festival featured only Black musicians, composers, and music. She worked tirelessly on the festival for three years, which was delayed due to WWII and Ellis' other professional commitments. The festival involved over 200 performers, all who came from seven different cities in east Tennessee. One of the Wednesday Morning Music Club members praised the event in writing, noting that there was a large audience from Johnson City as well as nearby towns.

Community Involvement

Ellis initiated a local chapter of the National Association of Negro Musicians in Washington, D.C.

Awards

In 2000, Ellis was made the first inductee to the Washington, D.C. Hall of Fame for Cultural Arts.

Death

Ellis lived to be 97, and died on February 19, 2004.