Henry Jay Lewis: October 16, 1932

Jet, Oct 21, 1996

October 16, 1932

Henry Jay Lewis, first Black conductor and music director of a major American orchestra, was born on this day in Los Angeles, CA. His music genius became apparent early when his mother put him at the piano when he was 5 years old. At age 16, he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming not only the first Black instrumentalist in a major American orchestra, but also the youngest. After being drafted into the Army in 1954, he became the conductor of the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, based in Stuttgart, Germany, where he remained until his discharge in 1957. From the 1960s on, Lewis conducted nearly every major American orchestra--the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic--as well as orchestras and opera companies in musical capitals worldwide. Lewis died January 26 1996, at the age of 63, from a heart attack.