Nellie E. Brown Mitchell (1845 – January 5, 1924) was an American concert singer and music educator, "one of Boston's favorite cantatrices."James M. Trotter
''Music and Some Highly Musical People''
(Johnson Reprint 1881): 192-208; quote on page 197.

Early life

Nellie E. Brown was born in Dover, New Hampshire, the daughter of Charles J. Brown and Martha A. Runnels Brown. She trained as a singer at the New England Conservatory of Music, earning a diploma in 1879. Her sister Edna Brown Bagnall was also a singer, and sometimes joined her in concerts. Their brother Edward Everett Brown was a lawyer and anti-lynching activist based in Boston.

Career

Nellie Brown Mitchell was a popular singer in churches in New England, and was at one point the lead soprano at four white churches in Boston. She gave concerts throughout and beyond the New England region. In 1874 she gave a concert at Steinway Hall in New York City. In the 1880s, Mitchell toured with the Bergen Concert Company. She also formed her own company, the Nellie Brown Mitchell Concert Company. From 1879 to 1886, she was musical director at Bloomfield Street Church in Boston."Nellie Brown Mitchell"
Dover History, Dover Public Library website. She sang at the first meeting of the

National Negro Business League The National Negro Business League (NNBL) was an American organization founded in Boston in 1900 by Booker T. Washington to promote the interests of African-American businesses. The mission and main goal of the National Negro Business League was ...

, in Boston in 1900. She sang at the funeral of abolitionist

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American Christian, abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known for his widely read antislavery newspaper '' The Liberator'', which he found ...

in 1879, and was a soloist at the observance of his centennial in 1905. Mitchell was head of the vocal department at Hedding Academy in New Hampshire. In 1876, she conducted a group of 50 girls in a cantata, ''Laila, the Fairy Queen'', as part of the Centennial Musical Festival in Boston. After she retired from touring, she taught voice techniques to African-American women students in Boston. In 1909, she organized and hosted the first meeting of the Chaminade Musical Club, for "the leading women musicians" of Boston, named for French composer Cécile Chaminade. Mitchell also invented the "phoneterion", a device meant to help train proper tongue position for vocal students.

Personal life

Nellie E. Brown married Charles Lewis Mitchell. He was a disabled veteran of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, having lost a foot as a member of the

55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment The 55th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment was the sister regiment of the renowned Massachusetts 54th Volunteers during the latter half of the American Civil War. The enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation by United States President Abraham L ...

. He was also one of the first two African-American members of the Massachusetts legislature, along with

Edward G. Walker Edward Garrison Walker (1830–1901), also Edwin Garrison Walker, was an American artisan in Boston who became an attorney; in 1861, he became one of the first black men to pass the Massachusetts bar. In 1866 he and Charles Lewis Mitchell were ...

. Nellie Brown Mitchell was widowed in 1912, and she died in Roxbury on January 5, 1924, aged 78 years.

References

External links

Nellie Brown Mitchell's New Hampshire gravesite
on Find a Grave. * Janice A. Brown
"African-American Soprano and 'Queen of Song': Dover, New Hampshire's Nellie (Brown) Mitchell (1845-1924)"
''Cow Hampshire'' (September 5, 2016). A blog post about Nellie Brown Mitchell. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Nellie Brown 1845 births 1924 deaths People from Dover, New Hampshire American women singers 19th-century American inventors New England Conservatory alumni Singers from New Hampshire Burials in New Hampshire