Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield (1809 -1876), a concert artist, was the first to win recognition outside the United States (England) when she gave a command performance for Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace in 1853.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JihudsPjAfw

Sissieretta Jones

Sissieretta Jones (1869 – 1933), a world famous soprano known as the Black Patti was the first to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York in 1892

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker (1906 – 1975), a dancer, was the first to receive the French Legion of Honor Award for the musical, Shuffle Along in 1920.

Mamie Smith

Mamie Smith (1883 – 1946), a vocalist, was the first performer to make a phonograph record, paving the way for all the classic blues women of the 1920s and beyond.

Hazel Harrison

Hazel Harrison (1883 - 1969), a concert orchestra pianist, was the first fullyAmerican-trained musician to appear with a European orchestra in the 1920s.

Lillian Evanti

Lillian Evanti (1891 - 1967), a lyric soprano, was the first to perform with a major European company in the 1920s, while simultaneously maintaining deep ties to her native home, Washington, D.C.

Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters (1896 – 1977), a film, television, theater actress and singer, was the first to be broadcasted on radio in April 21, 1922.

Florence Mills

Florence Mills (1896 – 1977), an entertainer and dancing jazz performer, was the first International female superstar when she appeared in the Plantation Review in Englandin 1923.

Nina Mae McKinney

Nina Mae McKinney (1912 - 1967), an actress, singer, and dancer was the first to have a leading role in the first all-black, all sound musical, Hallelujah in 1929.

Blanche Calloway

Blanche Calloway (1902 - 1978), sister to Cab Calloway, a jazz singer,composer and band leader, was the first to lead an All- Male Jazz Band in the 1930s.

Florence Beatrice Smith Price

Florence Beatrice Smith Price (1887 - 1953), a composer and pianist, was the first to have her work performed by a major symphony in the late 1930s.

Caterina Jarboro

Caterina Jarboro (1903 - 1986), a performing artist, was the first to perform with a major U.S. Opera Company when she is featured in the Chicago production of Verdi’s Aida, at the New York Hippodrome in 1933.

Etta Moten Barnett

Etta Moten Barnett (1901 - 2004), an actress and contralto vocalist, was the first to entertain at the White House in 1934. She was known for her signature role of “Bess” in Porgy and Bess.

Eva Jessye

Eva Jessye (1895 - 1992), a Choral Director, actress, author, and poet, was first to win international distinction as a director of a professional choral group. She was the first choral director for Porgy and Bess (1935).

Lena Horne

Lena Horne (1917 - 2010) a civil rights activist, vocalist, and entertainer,was the first performer to sign a long-term contract with a major Hollywood studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942.

Janet Collins

Janet Collins (1917 - 2003), a ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher, was the first artist to perform on the stage of the MET. She danced in a 1951 performance of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera House, in New York.

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson (1897 - 1993), a contralto singer, was the first to sing with the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955.

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald (1917 - 1996) a singer, was the first to win a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance for “The Irving Berlin Songbook” (album) and Best Individual Jazz Performance for “The Duke Ellington Songbook” (album) in 1958.

Leontyne Price

Leontyne Price (b. 1927), an opera singer, is widely regarded as the first to gain international acclaim as a professional opera singer. She made her stage debut at the San Francisco Opera House in 1957, and her debut at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1961.

Katherine Durham

Katherine Durham (1909 - 2006), a dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist, was the first choreographer for the Metropolitan Opera in New York in its new production of Aida for the 1963-64 seasons.

Diahann Carroll

Diahann Carroll (b. 1935), an actor and singer, was the first to have her own TV series, Julia in 1968.

Cheryl Andrienne Browne

Cheryl Andrienne Browne a ballet dancer, was the first to compete as a contestant in the Miss America in 1970.

Margaret Rosezarian

Margaret Rosezarian (1943 - 2000), a musician and educator, was the first to conduct the symphony orchestras of Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and thirteen other cities in the 1970s.

Carol Brice

Carol Brice (1918 - 1985), a contralto singer, was the first to win the Naumberg Award, in 1977.

Vanessa Williams

Vanessa Williams (b. 1963), a singer, actor, producer and beauty queen, was the first to be crowned Miss America in 1983.

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin (born March 25, 1942) is an American singer and musician. Franklin began her career singing gospel at her father, minister C. L. Franklin's church as a child. In 1960, at the age of 18, Franklin embarked on a secular career, recording forColumbia Records only achieving modest success.

Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson (1911 - 1972), a civil rights activist and gospel singer, is referred to as The Queen of Gospel" was the first to receive the Grammy Hall of Fame Award for Move On Up A Little Higher in 1998. (Chicago Connection)