Clarence Cameron White

Clarence Cameron White (August 10, 1880 – June 30, 1960) was an American neoromantic composer and concert violinist. Dramatic works by the composer were his best-known, such as the incidental music for the play Tambour and the opera Ouanga. During the first decades of the twentieth century, White was considered the foremost black violinist. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Early years Born in Clarksville, Tennessee, to James W. White, a doctor and school principal, and Jennie Scott White, a violinist who studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His father died when he was only two years old. White relocated with his mother and younger brother to Oberlin, Ohio, to live with her parents, where he was first exposed to the violin: My mother took me to hear The Messiah sung at the conservatory and I came away humming snatches of it. Mother thought I had a good musical ear and persuaded my grandfather, who was a religious man, to give me his violin…I was only six at the time, nevertheless, my grandfather pouted, “I’ll give him the violin. But if he ever plays at a dance I’ll take it back.” In 1890, Mrs. White remarried and White relocated with his family to Washington, D