HAGAN, Helen Eugenia

Born in Portsmouth, NH, Jan 10, 1893 
Died in New York, March 6, 1964 

• Helen Hagan was an African-American composer and pianist.¹ 
• Hagan was educated at Yale University and at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where her teachers included Vincent D’Indy.²
• During WWI, Hagan played for African American troops in Europe.³
• Hagan turned to teaching after struggling to find performing opportunities due to her race. She spent much of her as a college educator. She taught at Bishop College, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College (now Tennessee State University).⁴ She was also head of the music department at the George Peabody College for Teachers.⁵

Profile from the Grant-Hagan Society 

Biography from the New Haven Arts Council 

1. David Metzer, “Hagan, Helen Eugenia,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed May 26, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000049459.
2. Ibid.
3. Jessie Carney Smith, “Helen Eugenia Hagan,” in Notable Black American Women, Book II, ed. Smith (New York: Gale Research, 1992), 270-271.
4. Ibid.
5. Metzer, “Hagan, Helen Eugenia,” Grove Music Online