Categories
20th Century American

HOLT, Nora

Nora Holt

Born in Kansas City, KS, 1885 
Died in Los Angeles, CA, Jan 24, 1974 

  • Nora Holt was an American composer, singer, pianist, and music critic. 
  • Holt was the first African American to earn a Master of Music degree (Chicago Musical College, 1918). 
  • Holt studied with Nadia Boulanger in the 1920s. 
  • Holt served as music critic for The Amsterdam News in New York from 1943–64. 
  • Holt was a founding member of the National Associated of Negro Musicians (Betty Jackson King became the association’s president in the 1980s).  
  • Though Holt composed over 200 works, at this point, one or two of her works is known to have survived.12

Biography from the Kansas Historical Society 

Sources

  1. Karen M. Bryan, “Holt, Nora,” Grove Music Online (May 28, 2015), accessed March 2, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-1002283237.
  2. Nora Holt, Negro Dance Op. 25, No. 1, ed. Helen Walker-Hill (NM: Harbach Music Publishing, 2020), 5.

Pieces