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Creator
Wilkerson, Frederick
Call number
Sc MIRS Wilkerson 1985-64
Physical description
35 audio_recordings
Language
English
Preferred Citation
Frederick Wilkerson audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

Frederick Wilkerson (1903-1980) was a singer, vocal instructor, and founder of the Frederick Wilkerson Scholarship Foundation. The collection consists of thirty-five audio recordings dating from 1956 to 1982.

Biographical/historical information

Frederick Douglass "Wilkie" Wilkerson (1903-1980) was a singer, vocal instructor, and founder of the Frederick Wilkerson Scholarship Foundation. He worked with and taught many well-known entertainers and artists including Maya Angelou, Roberta Flack, and Bernice Johnson Reagon.

Born in Texas in 1903, Wilkerson began performing at age thirteen, and trained at Brick's College in North Carolina. After singing in Europe under the stage name Gilbert Adams, Wilkerson became a vocal instructor at Howard University and Catholic University, both located in Washington, D.C.

Wilkerson taught private lessons in New York City and opened a studio in Washington D.C., where he began co-teaching with former student Joy McLean in 1962. He assembled his students in several choral groups including the Frederick Wilkerson Studio Choir and the Frederick Wilkerson Male Ensemble.

In 1967, he founded the Frederick Wilkerson Scholarship Foundation in Washington, D.C. to support students and artists in need of financial assistance. He served as the foundation's artistic director. Gaynelle Reed Lewis, the collection's donor, was president of the foundation. McLean chaired the foundation's Concert Committee.

In 1980, McLean took over Wilkerson's Washington, D.C. studio, after Wilkerson moved back to New York City. He died later that year. The circumstances of Wilkerson's death remain unknown.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of thirty-five audio recordings dating from 1956 to 1982. The original formats of the recordings are reel and cassette, with many items containing two or more parts. Recordings of students' lessons and performances were annotated with their voice type classifications. Square brackets indicate partial or unclear information. Performers are unidentified unless otherwise noted.

The Frederick Wilkerson audio collection is arranged in three series:

  • SERIES I: VOICE LESSONS

    The recordings are organized alphabetically by instructors' last names. They include a lesson that may have been taught by Wilkerson; lessons led by Joy McLean; and one five-part recording of a two-day master class with classical singer Chloe Owen.

  • SERIES II: RECITALS

    Recordings of performances primarily by Wilkerson's students are organized alphabetically by last name. Performers are Naomi Blake, Leon Brown, [Ann Collin], Jane Cotton, Linda Deater, [Valerie Eichelberger], Afrika Hayes, Stephen Hunter, Michael J. Malovic, Inez Matthews, and William Parker. There are also recordings of performances by the Frederick Wilkerson Foundation Choir, the Frederick Wilkerson Male Ensemble, and the Frederick Wilkerson Studio Choir, who feature in a performance of the composer and conductor Eva Jessye's Paradise Lost and Regained.

  • SERIES III: COLLECTED

    Recordings collected by Wilkerson in the course of his life and work as a voice teacher and singer are organized alphabetically. They include language lessons, classical music, and contemporary music. Titles were devised by the archivist to reflect the content of the recordings.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gaynelle Reed Lewis, 1985.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Stacey Doyle Ference. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist; and Shola Lynch, curator. Finding aid published in 2024.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Frederick Wilkerson papers, Sc MG 377.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.