Betty Jackson King (Feb 17, 1928 – June 1, 1994) was an American

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

, singer, educator, choral conductor, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

. She was best known for her

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

works.

Biography

King was born in 1928 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. She first started learning music from her mother, Gertrude Jackson Taylor. King's father, Reverend Frederick D. Jackson a

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

at the Community Church of Woodlawn, helped expose her to church hymns and spirituals. Along with her mother and sister Catherine, she sang in the Jacksonian Trio. In 1969 when King began teaching at Wildwood High School in New Jersey, she integrated the high school's public school teaching staff. She was married to Vincent King and had a daughter, Rochelle. King died on June 1, 1994 in

Wildwood, New Jersey Wildwood is a city in Cape May County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area and is a popular summer resort destination along the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's year-rou ...

Education

Betty Jackson King studied throughout her life. She began at Wilson Junior College studying under Ester Goetz Gilliland. She then went to the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University where she earned a bachelor's degree in piano and a master's degree in composition from the

Chicago Musical College Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. History Founding Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...

of Roosevelt University. Here she studied different aspects of music: voice with the highly respected Thelma Waide Brown, composition with

Hans Tischler Hans Tischler (January 18, 1915 in Vienna – November 18, 2010 in Bloomington) was an American musicologist and composer with Austrian origins. Career Tischler completed his first PhD in musicology from the University of Vienna with the dis ...

and Karel Jirak, and piano with Saul Dorfman. She also studied music at Glassboro College in New Jersey,

Oakland University Oakland University is a public research university in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson, it was initially known as Michigan State University-Oakland, operating under the Mi ...

in Michigan, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

in Baltimore, Maryland. King went on to teach at the

University of Chicago Laboratory School The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools (also known as Lab or Lab Schools and abbreviated as UCLS though the high school is nicknamed U-High) is a private, co-educational day Pre-K and K-12 school in Chicago, Illinois. It is affiliated with t ...

, Roosevelt University,

Dillard University Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Ch ...

, and

Wildwood High School Wildwood High School is a comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Wildwood, in Cape May County, New Jersey. It is the sole secondary school of the Wildwood City School District. ...

, where she received the Teaching Recognition Award from former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. She was president of the National Association of Negro Musicians from 1970-1984. King retired from teaching in 1989.

Compositions

King's compositions were often vocal in nature. Her music is part of the "early Chicago classical music tradition" and its style is known for its extended harmonic language, thick chord clusters, and layers of sound. King wrote arrangements of spirituals,

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

s (''Saul of Tarsus, My Servant Job''), a

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

(''Simon of Cyrene'') and a requiem. ''Saul of Tarsus'' has had several performances since it was premiered in 1952. She wrote a ballet, ''Kids in School With Me'', and various other chamber and choral compositions. She has a handful of works for solo keyboard including ''Nuptial Suite,'' her only known organ work, as well as ''Aftermath (A Tone Poem)'' and ''Four Seasonal Sketches'' for piano.

Piano and Organ

* ''Aftermath (A Tone Poem)'' (1975) * ''Four Seasonal Sketches for piano'' (1973) * ''Mother Goose Parade'' (1971) * ''Nuptial Suite for organ'' (1969)

Songs

* ''A Lullaby for You'' (1973) * ''A Set of Three Dunbar Poems'' (1975) * ''Calvary'' (1954) * ''Climbing High Mountains'' (1990) * ''I Am Crucified With Christ'' (1971) * ''In the Springtime'' (1979) * ''It's Me, O Lord'' (1988) * ''No Harm'' (1972) * ''Rejoice in the Lord Alway'' (1971) * ''The Pledge'' (1991)

References

External links

Betty Jackson King, "Way By an' By"
{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Betty Jackson 1928 births 1994 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American women pianists 20th-century American pianists 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century women composers African-American classical composers American classical composers African-American classical pianists American classical pianists African-American women classical composers African-American music educators American women classical composers American women music educators Dillard University faculty Musicians from Chicago People from Wildwood, New Jersey Roosevelt University alumni African-American women musicians Classical musicians from Illinois Classical musicians from New Jersey