Irene Britton Smith
(1907–1999)
Irene Britton Smith was a dedicated composer and music educator who utilized her talents to serve her community. She was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 22, 1907. In her youth, Smith took piano and violin lessons, and she hoped to study music at Northwestern University. Unfortunately, this goal was not financially possible, so from 1924 to 1926 she trained at the Chicago Normal School. Smith began teaching in the Chicago Public School system in 1930, and she married Herbert E. Smith the following year. She also continued to pursue her dream of studying music by enrolling in the American Conservatory of Music in 1932. Due to her busy schedule, Smith could only complete one course per year. Still, 11 years later, her tireless dedication earned her a bachelor of music in 1943.
From 1946 to 1947, she went on sabbatical to take graduate composition classes at Juilliard with Vittorio Giannini. During this time, she composed her piano piece Variations on a Theme by MacDowell, her song cycle Dream Cycles, set to the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and her Sonata for Violin and Piano. Smith’s musical style was largely neoclassical or neoromantic with occasional references to Black musical idioms. She also attended summer classes at the Eastman School of Music in 1948 and the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1949. In 1956, Smith earned a Master of Music in theory and composition at De Paul University. Finally, during the summer of 1958 she studied with Nadia Boulanger in the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau in France.
In 1962 Smith retired from composing and in 1978 she retired from teaching. Although she officially ended her music career, Smith remained connected to her passion through her work as a volunteer docent for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who introduced public school children to various aspects of classical music. In 1995, she also heard the recording of her Sonata for Violin and Piano on the album Kaleidoscope: Music by African-American Women on Leonarda Records. Even in retirement, Smith remained an avid learner and music lover until her death on February 15, 1999.
Elizabeth Durrant
Elizabeth Durrant recently received an M.A. in Musicology from the University of North Texas. She also earned a B.A. in English Literature (St. Mary’s College of Maryland) and a B.S. in Voice (Towson University)—as a result she is dedicated to exploring intersections between these disciplines. Her master’s thesis is titled “Chicago Renaissance Women: Black Feminism in the Careers and Songs of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.” Elizabeth plans to pursue her PhD in musicology and continue exploring her interests in Black and female composers, twentieth-century neoromantic music, and American art song.
Sources
Payette, Jessica. “Smith, Irene Britton.” Oxford Music Online. Last modified on May 25, 2016.
https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2293088.
Walker-Hill, Helen. From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers
and Their Music. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2002.
