Henry Lewis, pioneer black classical music conductor and director, succumbs to heart attack

Jet, Feb 26, 1996

Henry Jay Lewis, the first Black conductor and music director of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the first Black to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, recently died of a heart attack at his home in Manhattan. He was 63.

Lewis first broke racial barriers in classical music at the age of 16 when he became the first Black instrumentalist, and also the youngest, to play with a major orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in 1948. He remained with the orchestra as a double bass player until 1954 when he was drafted into the Army.

A gifted musician, Lewis continued to break racial barriers in classical music when he became the first Black musical director and conductor of a major American orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, in 1968, at the age of 36. Later, in 1972, Lewis continued to pave the way in classical music when he became the first Black conductor at New York's Metropolitan Opera.

He is survived by a daughter, Angela, of Hermosa Beach, CA.