Margaret Allison Bonds (March 3, 1913 – April 26, 1972) was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and teacher. One of the first Black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her popular arrangements of African American spirituals and frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes. She was the first African American woman to perform with the all-White and all-male Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the first African American women to have her music broadcast on European radio, the first African American woman to have her music performed widely in Africa, only the second African American woman in classical music to be elected to full membership in ASCAP, and the first woman, Black or white, to win three awards from ASCAP.
Margaret Jeanette Allison Majors was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 3, 1913. Her father, Monroe Alpheus Majors, was an active force in the civil rights movement as a physician and writer. His work included founding a medical association for black physicians who were denied membership in the American Medical Association on the basis of race. As an author, Majors is known for his book, Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities (1893), and for his work as editor of several African American newspapers. Her mother, Estella (Estelle) C. Bonds, was a church musician and member of the National Association of Negro Musicians. She died in 1952.
When her parents' troubled marriage was annulled in 1919, young Margaret's last name was changed to her mother's maiden name, Bonds. Despite the end of her parents' marriage, Margaret continued to stay in touch with her father, who, in 1920, wrote the first nursery rhyme storybook for African American children called First Steps and Nursery Rhymes; he dedicated it to 7-year-old Margaret.
As a child, Margaret Bonds studied piano under the Coleridge Taylor Scholarship, which was awarded to her by the Coleridge Taylor School of Music, where her mother worked as an educator for 20 years. During this time, she, at the ages of both 8 and 9 years old, won piano scholarships from the Chicago Musical College. Margaret's piano teachers up until the age of 13 included her mother Estella Bonds, Martha B. Anderson, and Tom Theodore Taylor. At 13, she began studying with William Levi Dawson and Florence Price. Margaret's mother often hosted other Black musicians, artists, and writers in her home. Among those included Abbie Mitchell, Lillian Evanti, and composer Will Marion Cook, all of whom would become influential to her future musical studies and career.
By October 1939 Margaret Bonds, realizing that she wanted to be a published composer (a problem because there were relatively few music publishers in Chicago), moved to New York. On her twenty-seventh birthday (March 3, 1940), she married Lawrence Richardson, a probation officer, after moving to New York City in 1939. The couple later had a daughter, Djane Richardson. Margaret continued to be an active composer and touring musician throughout the 1960s and until her final days. She also dedicated her later life to promoting African American musicians of the time. In addition, she moved to Los Angeles in 1967 to compose music for film. In addition, she also wrote music for theatre and 2 ballets. With her move to Los Angeles, she assumed the music directorship with the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center and Repertory, where she composed and gave music lessons to local children. She spent the last five years of her life working there. Her last major work, Credo, was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra one month after her death. She suffered from depression and alcoholism following the death of her friend Langston Hughes. Bonds died of a heart attack at age 59, on April 26, 1972, in Los Angeles, California.
Besides her known education as a mentee of Florence Price, Margaret was first introduced to music education through her mother, Estella C. Bonds. Her parents divorced at an early age for her, so she spent most of her time in her mom's house and inherited her name. Her mother studied at the Chicago Musical College and was part of the National Association of Negro Musicians. She was also an organist and choir director for the Berean Baptist Church in Chicago. She supported the fine arts by hosting Sunday musicals in her home. The Bonds's household was a hub for artists and literary figures of the Chicago African American community. Influential people like sopranos and composers Will Marion Cook, Countee Cullen, Abbie Mitchell, Noble Sissle, Florence Price and Langston Hughes frequented as guests. From an early age, Margaret had musical talent, making her a child prodigy. Margaret won a scholarship to the Coleridge Taylor School of Music, where her mother taught.
During high school, Bonds continued to study piano and composition with Florence Price and later with William Dawson. In 1929, at the young age of 16, Bonds began her studies at Northwestern University, where she earned both her Bachelor of Music (1933) and Master of Music (1934) degrees in piano and composition. She received applied for and received a fellowship from the Julian Rosenwald Fund to pursue her master's degree.
Discrimination Faced in Northwestern University
Bonds was one of the few Black students at Northwestern University; the environment was hostile, racist, and nearly unbearable. Although she was permitted to study at the university, she was not allowed to live on campus or use the library, practice facilities, or swimming pool. She took comfort in the poetry of Langston Hughes which speaks about the struggles of African Americans in society.
In an interview with James Hatch, she states:
I was in this prejudiced university, this terribly prejudiced place…. I was looking in the basement of the Evanston Public Library where they had the poetry. I came in contact with this wonderful poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and I'm sure it helped my feelings of security. Because in that poem he tells how great the black man is. And if I had any misgivings, which I would have to have – here you are in a setup where the restaurants won't serve you and you're going to college, you're sacrificing, trying to get through school – and I know that poem helped save me.
Bonds moved to New York City after graduating from Northwestern University. There she attended the prestigious Juilliard School of Music and studied composition with Roy Harris, Robert Starer, and Emerson Harper, and piano with Djane Herz. She also studied with Walter Gossett. She pursued lessons with Nadia Boulanger, who upon looking at her work said that she needed no further study and refused to teach her. However, it is inconclusive whether Boulanger truly thought Bonds had no need of further instruction or was acting from a position of racial prejudice. The work Boulanger refers to is The Negro Speaks of Rivers, a setting for voice and piano of Langston Hughes' poem by the same title—the very poem which brought Bonds such comfort during her years at Northwestern University.
Bonds was active in her career throughout her studies at Northwestern University. In 1932, Bonds' 1931 art song Sea Ghost won the prestigious national Wanamaker Foundation Prize, bringing her to the public's attention. On June 15, 1933, Bonds performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—the first black person in history to do so—during its Century of Progress series (Concertino for Piano and Orchestra by John Alden Carpenter) in the Century of Progress World's Fair. In 1934 she would again perform in that fair – this time the Piano Concerto in D minor of her former teacher Florence Price, accompanied by the Woman's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago under the direction of Ebba Sundstrom.
After graduation, Bonds continued to teach, compose, and perform in Chicago, also touring widely with bass-baritone John Greene (1901–1967), soprano Catherine Van Buren (1907–2001) and soprano Etta Moten Barnett. Two of her notable students were Ned Rorem and Gerald Cook, with whom she performed piano duos in later years. In 1938, she opened the Allied Arts Academy where she taught art, music, and ballet. That same year, an adaptation of "Peach Tree Street" appeared in Gone With the Wind. She also taught Talib Rasul Hakim.