Forgotten piece of music brought back to life and back to Carnegie Hall
By Chanteé Lans
Click here for updates on this story
NEW YORK (WABC) — It’s Black History Month and a powerful piece of American music is finally reclaiming its place in the spotlight.
Nearly a century ago, composer and choir director William Levi Dawson made history when his Negro Folk Symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall – a rare honor for a Black composer at the time.
Though widely praised, the work was soon forgotten and went unheard for decades – until now.
“Last year April 2025 was the first time that William Levi Dawson’s work, the Negro Folk Symphony, was performed again at Carnegie,” said composer and performer Damien Sneed.
Negro Folk Symphony’s debut by the Philadelphia Orchestra in Pennsylvania and at Carnegie Hall in 1934 made Dawson the third African American composer whose symphony was premiered by a major American orchestra.
The music draws deeply from African American spirituals like the bond of Africa – offering a profound musical reflection of the Black experience in America.
“I was whisked transcendently into a place of seeing people having to work under harsh conditions,” Sneed said.
Sneed, who is also a professor at Howard University and Juilliard, was with the Gateways Festival Orchestra last year that brought back Dawson’s work to Carnegie’s main stage after nearly a century.
“It was incredible, 96 musicians of color on one stage, it was just powerful,” Sneed said.
That was last April, but this year during Black History Month, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra will perform at Carnegie Hall.
In 2003, Billy Hunter Jr. became the first Black Principal Trumpet of the Met Opera and of any major U.S. orchestra.
“I think it says volumes,” he said. “But it’s not just music right, I think it’s in all aspects of society, systemic racism.”
Like Dawson, the Met Orchestra’s Sasha Romero is a trombonist.
“It’s nice to feel connected to a bit of Black history as a mixed-race person,” Romero said. “I particularly feel the lost history that my mother’s ancestors have from slavery.”
It’s a cultural work that transcends through time.
“I think we have a responsibility and a duty to make sure that his voice is never lost,” Sneed said.
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.