This exhibit on Oakville’s Black History was developed in honour of the Nathaniel Dett Chorale’s performance at the Oakville Centre on Sunday February 6th, 2000.
The Nathaniel Dett Chorale was inspired and named after Nathaniel Dett, a celebrated composer who was born in Drummondville, now Niagara Falls, Canada in 1882. He became a church organist in the community, composing works such as “After the Cakewalk – March-Cakewalk”. He later studied music in the United States earning several degrees, and studied piano with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Dett was dedicated to the cause of Black music in America. He performed widely, including at Carnegie Hall and the Boston Symphony Hall, as well as before presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of his best known works “Listen to the Lambs” was recorded by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Nathaniel Dett was awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Music in 1924, from Howard University. It is interesting to note that Nathaniel Dett was known of and likely known by Alexander Duncan, who was the choirmaster at the Turner Chapel in Oakville about 1915. It seems fitting then, to celebrate Oakville’s African American heritage within the context of its much greater historic and geographic community.
© Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate, The Corporation of the Town of Oakville, 2000
The following information is reproduced from the display panels in the exhibit “Oakville’s Black History”, as written and designed by Deborah Hudson, Curator of Collections, Oakville Museum at Erchless Estate.
