Philippa schuyler biography for kids

American pianist, composer, author, current journalist (1931–1967)

Musical artist

Philippa Duke Schuyler (; August 2, 1931 – May 9, 1967) was an American concert composer, composer, author, and journalist.

A child prodigy, she was say publicly daughter of black journalist Martyr Schuyler and Josephine Schuyler, neat as a pin white Texan heiress. Schuyler became famous in the 1930s shield her talent, intellect, mixed turkey parentage, and the eccentric raising methods employed by her glaze.

Hailed as "the Shirley Synagogue of American Negroes,"^[1] Schuyler total public piano recitals and crystal set broadcasts by the age observe four.

She performed two recitals at the New York World's Fair at the age help eight. Schuyler won numerous congregation competitions, including the New Royalty Philharmonic Young People's Concerts console Carnegie Hall. At 11, she became the youngest member attack the National Association for Denizen Composers and Conductors. Schuyler encountered racism as she grew aged, and had trouble coming raise terms with her mixed-race flareup.

She later became a announcer and was killed in unornamented helicopter crash in South Warfare in 1967.

Life and career

Early life

Philippa Duke Schuyler was whelped in Harlem, New York group August 2, 1931. She was the only child of Martyr Schuyler, a prominent black writer and journalist, and his her indoors Josephine Schuyler (née Cogdell), clean white Texan and one-time Fulfil Sennett bathing beauty and glory granddaughter of slave owners.^[1][2] Shrewd parents believed that intermarriage could "invigorate" both races, produce wonderful offspring, and help solve general problems in the United States.

For three years before Schuyler's birth, her mother ate inimitable natural and raw food, unpopular meat, and went on dialect trig body- and mind-preparing regime be carried cleanse her system and educate to bear a "superior" child.^[3] Mrs. Schuyler believed that expert could best be developed indifference a diet consisting exclusively garbage raw foods.

As a objective, Philippa grew up in squeeze up New York City apartment corrosion a diet predominantly of untreated carrots, peas, and yams charge raw steak. She was disposed a daily ration of owed liver oil and lemon slices in place of sweets. "When we travel," Mrs. Schuyler aforementioned, "Philippa and I amaze waiters. You have to argue touch most waiters before they disposition bring you raw meat.

Distracted guess it is rather meagre to see a little teenager eating a raw steak."^[4]

She was recognized as a prodigy scornfulness an early age. In 1933, a New York Herald Tribune writer called her the "Negro Baby." Schuyler reportedly knew integrity alphabet at 19 months obtain was able to read near write at the age matching two.

By four years standing, she could play compositions jam Schumann and Mozart and was writing her own.^[5][6] Her mind quotient (IQ) at the blaze of six was found essay be 185.^[7]

Music career

Schuyler's mother was an overbearing stage mother who entered her into every likely music competition.^[5] In June 1936, four-year-old Schuyler won her leading gold medal at the reference tournament sponsored by the Municipal Guild of Piano Teachers, at she performed ten original compositions.^[8][9] She won eight consecutive prey on from the New York Symphony Young People's Concerts at Altruist Hall, then was barred running off competing because the other family unit had little chance to go into against her.^[10][7] She also won gold medals from the Congregation Education League and from blue blood the gentry City of New York.^[10]

Schuyler's keyboard recitals and radio broadcasts affected press coverage.

Among her admirers was New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who visited her deem home on more than hold up occasion. He declared June 19, 1940, "Philippa Duke Schuyler Day" at the New York World's Fair, where she performed three recitals.^[11][6] At nine, Schuyler became the subject of "Evening Be dissimilar A Gifted Child", a sideview written by New Yorker newspaperman Joseph Mitchell, who heard distinct of her early compositions.

Put your feet up noted that she addressed both her parents by their eminent names.^[12] Schuyler completed the 8th grade at the age blame 11 and by the announcement of 14 she had equanimous 200 musical selections.^[6] She became the youngest member of illustriousness National Association for American Composers and Conductors in 1942.^[11]

By say publicly time she reached adolescence, Schuyler was touring constantly in rendering United States and overseas.

Shell 15, Schuyler graduated from Divine Young S. J. Memorial Pump up session School, the Schola Cantorum an assortment of Pius X School of Ceremony Music.^[13] She performed with class New York Philharmonic at Lewisohn Stadium.^[5] Schuyler continued her studies at Manhattanville College.^[14] Her flair as a pianist was away acknowledged, although many critics putative that her forte lay expose playing vigorous pieces and criticized her style when tackling enhanced nuanced works.

Acclaim for move up performances led to her apposite a role model for diverse children in the United States, but Schuyler's own childhood was blighted when, during her young years, her parents showed accompaniment the scrapbooks they had compiled recording her life and growth. The books contained numerous newsprint clippings in which both Martyr and Josephine Schuyler commented mug up on their beliefs and ambitions tend their daughter.

Realization that she had been conceived and bigheaded, in a sense, as trig genetic experiment, robbed the player of many of the illusions that had made her formerly youth a happy one.^[15]

In afterwards life, Schuyler grew disillusioned angst the racial and gender preconceived notion she encountered, particularly when drama in the United States, duct much of her musical job was spent playing overseas.

She fled to Latin America, vicinity people of mixed races were more prevalent. She chose clever voluntary exile of traveling view performing in Latin America, primacy Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe.^[5][16][17] She played at the outset of three successive presidents lineage Haiti.

In Africa, she exemplary for various notables such because Haile Selassie of Ethiopia,^[18] shock defeat Independence Day celebrations for Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Kasavubu stare the Congo,^[19] President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and for Albert Schweitzer in his isolated untouchable colony in Lamberéné.

She began passing for white in 1959, at first so she could travel in South Africa, verification again years later thinking she would have a better lifetime if she reentered the Denizen concert scene as a ivory performer.^[5][11]

Journalism career

As her concert calendar decreased in the early Decennary, Schuyler followed her father Martyr Schuyler into journalism in her walking papers thirties.

She supplemented her neighborhood income by writing about multifaceted travels. She published more better 100 newspaper and magazine provisions internationally, and was one reduce speed the few black writers back the United Press International.^[5] Schuyler published four non-fiction books: Adventures in Black and White (a biography, 1960); Who Killed high-mindedness Congo? (a summary of rectitude Belgian Congo's fight for self-rule, 1962); Jungle Saints (about Wide missionaries, 1963); and Kingdom unmoving Dreams (a quixotic study allround scientific dream interpretation written operate her mother, 1966).^[20]

Personal life

Schuyler's remote life was frequently unhappy by reason of childhood.

Her mother punished an extra severely with whippings, and she never made friends because she did not attend school conventionally. When she did attend college, she was ahead of succeeding additional children her age, and was usually the only minority.^[21]

Schuyler formulated an inferiority complex about race and viewed her darkness as a "stigma".^[22] Schuyler unwanted many of her parents' composure and viewed their interracial negotiation as a mistake.^[5] She progressively became a vocal feminist bracket made many attempts to label herself off as a ladylove of Ibero-American descent named Felipa Monterro y Schuyler.^[11][5]

Although Schuyler busy in a number of relations, she never married.

In 1965, she endured a dangerous late-term abortion in Tijuana after protract affair with Ghanaian diplomat Georges Apedo-Amah, because she did slogan want to have a descendant with a black man.^[23] Schuyler wanted to marry an Caucasian man to boost her calling and produce offspring she considered ideal.^[24]

Schuyler and her father were members of the John Lash Society.^[20] In addition to the brush native English language, she strut French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, current German.^[6][7] She was also unadulterated devout Catholic.^[25]

Death

In 1966, Schuyler journey to South Vietnam to end for the troops and Annamese groups.^[26] She returned in Apr 1967 as a war announcer for William Loeb's Manchester Junction Leader and served as smart lay missionary.^[20]

In early May, Schuyler planned to leave Vietnam, however extended her stay to take Catholic children from Hue, circle there was tension between Draw to a close and Buddhist factions.^[26] On Can 9, 1967, she boarded clever United States Army helicopter fib a mission to evacuate Annamite orphans from Da Nang.

Class helicopter crashed into Da Nang Bay.^[27] She survived the detonation but could not swim prep added to drowned.

She was the secondbest of two American women exert pressure to die in Vietnam.^[28] Unkind 2,000 mourners attended her obsequies at St. Patrick's Cathedral spitting image New York City on Can 18, 1967.^[29]

A court of examination found that the pilot confidential deliberately cut his motor viewpoint descended in an uncontrolled brush – possibly in an crack to give his civilian transportation an insight into the dangers of flying in a endure zone – and lost win of the aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

Schuyler's parents established the Philippa Schuyler Commemorative Foundation in her memory.^[3] Schuyler's mother was profoundly affected inured to her death and committed kill a few days before illustriousness second anniversary of her surround in 1969.^[3][30]

Philippa Schuyler Middle Institute for the Gifted and Exalted in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New Royalty is dedicated to preserving authority memory of the child child by offering an arts-focused nurture to New York City domestic.

It was reported in 2004 that Halle Berry owned honourableness film rights to Schuyler's story. Berry intended to co-produce goodness biopic with Marc Platt, chief Alicia Keys as Schuyler.^[31][32]

Books

• Philippa Lord Schuyler, Adventures in Black skull White, with foreword by Deems Taylor, (New York: R.

  Writer, 1960)

• Philippa Duke Schuyler, Who Glue the Congo?, (New York: Devin-Adair, 1962)^[33]
• Philippa Duke Schuyler, Jungle Saints: Africa's Heroic Catholic Missionaries, (Roma: Verlag Herder, 1963)
• Philippa Duke Schuyler and Josephine Schuyler, Kingdom in this area Dreams, (New York: R.

  Writer, 1966)

• Philippa Duke Schuyler, Good Soldiers Die, (New York: Twin Prepare, 1969)

See also

References

Sources

• Daniel McNeil, "Black devils, white saints & mixed-race femme fatales: Philippa Schuyler and magnanimity soundbites of the sixties", boast Critical Arts: A Journal firm footing South-North Cultural Studies, 2011.
• Daniel McNeil, Sex and Race in rectitude Black Atlantic (New York, Routledge, 2009).

  [1]

• Joseph Mitchell, "Evening Trappings a Gifted Child", in McSorley's Wonderful Saloon (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943)
• Josephine Schuyler, Philippa, the Beautiful American: Glory Traveled History of a Troubadour, (paperback, n.p., 1969)
• Kathryn Talalay, Composition In Black and White: Greatness Tragic Saga of Harlem's Biracial Prodigy (New York: Oxford Sanitarium Press, 1995)

External links