Pioneering conductor Everett Lee has died at the age of 105. And what a lot he must have seen!

Lee was the first African American to conduct on Broadway, rising from the pit orchestra as a substitute to direct “Carmen Jones,” and then employed by Leonard Bernstein as full-time conductor of “On the Town.” That was in 1945.

Lee was also the first Black conductor of an established symphony orchestra below the Mason-Dixon Line (while guesting with the Louisville Orchestra) and the first to conduct a major American opera company (“La traviata” at New York City Opera in 1955, returning the following season to conduct “La bohème”).

Lee received encouragement especially from Bernstein and Artur Rodzinski, and worked with such conductors as Leopold Stokowski and Serge Koussevitzky.

Though regular employment seems not to have been an issue, Lee found that many of the best opportunities were closed to him on account of his race. Once, he was considered by Rodgers and Hammerstein to lead a national tour of one of their shows, but in the end, fearing trouble in the South, they decided to go with somebody else.

To maintain his presence as a conductor, Lee organized the Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra, interracial and multiethnic, was staffed with underdogs in the field – Jews, Chinese, Slavs, Italians, and women.

Eventually, like African American conductor Dean Dixon (born in 1915), Lee left America to seek better opportunities abroad. He moved to Munich in 1957 and was hired as music director in Norköpping, Sweden, in 1962.

He returned to the U.S. to conduct the New York Philharmonic – orchestra of his former mentors Rodzinski and Bernstein – for the first time on January 15, 1976, a concert given in honor of Martin Luther King’s birthday. On the program was Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, and “Kosbro” by African American composer David Baker (Baker revealed the title was short for “Keep on Stepping, Brothers”).

Lee’s first wife, Sylvia, was hired by the Met in 1953, becoming the first African American on the house’s staff. (Of course, Marian Anderson would be the first on stage, in 1955.) But for Everett Lee, despite invitations to guest conduct, a permanent position with a major orchestra in the United States or Europe remained elusive.

In 1979, he became music director of the Bogata Philharmonic Orchestra of Colombia.

Lee died on December 12 in Malmö, Sweden.

A must-read account of Lee’s life and accomplishments:

http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/centers/hitchcock/publications/amr/v43-1/oja.php

Everett Lee tribute, including footage of him conducting: