P. G. Lowery

Perry George Lowery (Topeka, October 11, 1869 – Cleveland, December 15, 1942) was an American composer, conductor, cornet player, and a circus sideshow manager of African American entertainment and musical ensembles. Early life Born October 11, 1870, P. G. Lowery came from a musical family. He played the drums in a family band, but later transitioned to cornet. Most African Americans worked in agriculture, domestic work, or unskilled labor. The following year he played with the Wallace Circus. Next Lowery became a cornetist with the Original Nashville Students and P. T. Wright’s Colored Comedy Company. In 1897 or 1899 he studied at the Boston Conservatory under the direction of Henry C. Brown. In the summer of 1898 he played solo cornet at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska with the Original Nashville Students. And in 1899 he started the P.G. Lowery’s Famous Concert Band and P.G. Lowery’s Vaudeville Company, an important accomplishment because he was the first African American to bring his own vaudeville troupe to the circus. During the early 1900s he published a newspaper column, “The Cornet and Cornetists of Today” in The Freeman. Late career P.G. Lowery led and