NEVILLA E. OTTLEY-ADJAHOE, B.Mus.Ed., M.A. (organ & music
history), M.Mus. (conducting) is the founder of the Ottley Music School,
established in 1973 a year after she graduated with her Master of Arts
in organ and music history from Andrews University where she had earned
her B.Mus. in music education and piano performance. She came to
Maryland after spending time in New York (accompanying the fledgling
Boys Choir of Harlem) and New Jersey (teaching piano and organ at Garden
State Academy). The Ottley Music Studio existed out of her home in
Maryland, while she taught piano and theory, and later added other piano
teachers, violin, voice and clarinet teachers.
She worked as a
church musician, organist and choir director, since while in school in
1971.In 1974, she went to work at the Catholic University of America
(CUA). During her tenure there, earned second graduate degree, a Master
of Music in choral and orchestral conducting. After taking a class at
CUA on Black Composers, she began a weekly one-hour radio show, Classics
of Ebony, aired over WGTS 91.9 fm from 1976 to 1997, when the station
changed format from classical to contemporary religious. She makes sure
that music of Black Composers is included in what Ottley Music School
students learn, and their ensembles and orchestra play. She has written
three books on the subject, "Black Composers Born Before 1850," "Black
Pianists of Classical Music," available at the Ottley Music and Book
Store and "Still's Life in Pictures" (published and sold out for the
1995 Washington, D. C. centennial celebration of composer William Grant
Still).
Mrs. Nevilla E. Ottley-Adjahoe was working as librarian
at WGMS 103.5 fm when she was hired as the Music Director for the Choral
and Orchestral Society of the World Bank/IMF in 1983. She worked there
until she started the Takoma Park Symphony in 1988, the same year that
she launched the first "Summer Fun" Music Camp in Washington, D. C., two
weeks of music studies in strings, voice and piano, with 9 teachers and
over 60 students. She worked with Takoma Park Symphony from 1988-1995,
and with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra from 2000-2002 as music
director/conductor.
Her students have always rated very high in
both the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and of the
National Guild of Piano Teachers annual examinations and auditions. Over
the past 40+ years, her piano, organ and voice students have taken (and
are still taking) places of responsibility in the music world and other
fields internationally. Most of them have gone on to colleges and
universities around the world as students and professors, such as Johns
Hopkins University, Andrews University, Loma Linda University, Western
Michigan University, University of Maryland, Oakwood College, Duke
University, Howard University, Berkelee School of Music, Morgan State
University, Bethune Cookman College, Mannes College, Princeton, Northern
Caribbean University, University of the Southern Caribbean, Bowie State
University and others.
Mrs. Nevilla E. Ottley-Adjahoe has high
ideals and goals for all students and teachers of the Ottley Music
School (OMS). She expects teachers to have the same level of motivation
and achievement for their students as she expects of hers. Therefore,
she has selected a faculty that we hope will continue the high ideals
and level of achievement. She serves at the OMS as a teacher of piano,
voice, organ, music theory, music history, and conducting, and is the
Music Director and principal conductor of the Hyattsville Symphony,
comprised of students, OMS School teachers, and community musicians,
including many of the Prince George's Philharmonic's "Symphony Kids."
She also produces the concerts and operas at the OMS School and directs
the summer camp programs.
To request Mrs. Nevilla E.
Ottley-Adjahoe as conductor or speaker at your next event, contact her at or at Voices
of Diversity.
Nevilla E. Ottley, the Author
It was while Ms. Ottley was a graduate student at Andrews University that she had a curiosity about Black composers. She asked one of the professor who was a published composer (who will remain unnamed) if there were any who were famous, so that she could write her Master's thesis on this person. She was told that there were only two who were recognized, but were not famous because their works were rather "childlike" and not to the level of the masters. He named Ulysses Kay and William Grant Still, two of Americas greatest composers of any race (of course she did not know that, and in 1971 "Google" did not exist, actually, not even PCs for students. She did her thesis on the "Number Symbolism of Bach's Chorale Preludes for Organ", a very ineresting study.
It was about 4 years later, while working at The Catholic University of America that she took a new course offered, "Choral Works of Black Composers" taught by visiting professor (from Howard University), the late Evelyn Davidson White. It was such an enlightening course that at the end of the semester, the entire class gave her a gift of appreciation. Professor White opened the eyes of the class to not only the choral works, but to all the works, and lives of the Black Composers from the Classical Period through the Present day, and heightened their interest to continue research into such composers and works. It was through another professor, Ms. Ottley's Choral Conducting Professor, L. Jeanette Wells, that she was told that from her annual research in Spain, she (Dr. Wells) learned that Tomas Luis de Victoria (ca. 1548-1611) who is known as the greatest or most illustrious Spanish composer of the Renaissance was "Black like you, child!!!" she exclaimed, slapping Ms. Ottley's forearm. "There were no other persons but Africans living in Avila at that time."
Thanks to Professor's Evelyn DavidsonWhite and Laura Jeanette Wells the study of Black composers became an obsession in the mind of Ms. Ottley, and from 1976-1997 she researched, produced and hosted "Classics of Ebony" a one-hour weekly radio show on WGTS-fm (91.9 mhz) in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on recorded music of Black composers and performances by Black artists of any type of classical music (using the word classical as vs. popular).
In 1994 she started writing books for young people about these composers and artists since most of the books she found were scholastic books to be used by college and university students and professors.
To date she has written the following Children's Story Book Series:
Black Pianists of Classical Music (1994), presently sold out, to be reissued
Some Famous Black Composers born before 1850 (1994), available
Still's Life in Pictures (compiled with the help of William Grant Still's daughter, Judith AnneStill Headley for his centennial celebration in Washington, D.C. in May 1995. Contact WilliamGrantStillMusic.com for more info on that book.
Some Famous Black Divas born before 1900 (to be published in 2010)
Some Famous Black Male Singers (to be published 2010)
More Black Pianists of Classical Music (to be published in 2010)
These books are appropriate for use in schools from Middle School through High School for classroom teaching, and for individual research. The author herself has effectively used these books for teaching elementary classes.
