Dorothy Maynor (September 3, 1910 – February 19, 1996) was an American soprano, concert singer, and the founder of the Harlem School of the Arts. Miss Maynor was born in Norfolk, Va., and as a child she sang in the choir of her father's church. She entered Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Hampton, Va., intending to become a teacher of home economics, but she also joined the renowned Hampton Choir, with which she toured Europe in 1929. On the advice of the choir director, R. Nathaniel Dett, she changed her major to music and earned a bachelor's degree in 1933. After being awarded a scholarship, she studied choir direction at the Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., where she received a second bachelor's degree in music and choral conducting in 1935.
While on tour in New England with the school's choir, she was encouraged by several wealthy benefactors to pursue a concert career. Three years of private study in New York followed, with Wilfried Klamroth and John Alan Haughton. At this time she changed the spelling of her name from Mainor. After hearing her sing at the 1939 Berkshire Symphonic Festival at Tanglewood in western Massachusetts, the conductor Serge Koussevitzky reportedly jumped up and down, shouting: "It is a miracle! It is a musical revelation! The world must hear her!" Koussevitzky, who called Miss Maynor "a native Flagstad," immediately used her in recordings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She made her formal debut at Town Hall in Manhattan later that year, on Nov. 19, in a widely anticipated event that was sold out more than a week in advance. Olin Downes, reviewing the concert for The New York Times, hailed her as "one of the most remarkable soprano voices of the rising generation," called her voice "phenomenal for its range, character and varied expressive resources."
Miss Maynor began touring extensively in the United States, often appearing as a soloist with leading orchestras. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1940 with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by John Barbirolli. In the late 40's she toured Latin America and Europe. She often performed at benefits to aid the war effort and black causes. She sang at the Presidential Inaugural galas for Harry S. Truman in 1949 and Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. In 1952, by special permission of the Daughters of the American Revolution, she appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra at Constitution Hall in the first commercial appearance there by a black artist since Miss Anderson had been barred from performing at the hall in 1939. (Miss Anderson subsequently gave benefit performances at the hall.) Miss Maynor recorded popular arias and songs for RCA Victor. Although she never appeared on the opera stage, she recorded the role of Leonore in "Fidelio" under Arturo Toscanini. Dorothy Maynor sings "Alleluja" from Mozart's "Exultate jubilate"
DOROTHY MAYNOR SINGS -SCHUBERT AVE MARIA 1940 Oh Sleep, why dost thou leave me
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