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[[image - production photo of Aida cast and part of orchestra]]
[[image caption - AIDA: ACT II, SCENE 2]]

A Brief History of the Company

The National Negro Opera Company was conceived
and created in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
in 1941 by a woman with an idea. The inspiration
for this idea was motivated by the desire to
create opportunities for thousands of talented
young people, for whom the chance of self-
expression would have been impossible without
the channels created through the National Negro
Opera. That woman was Madame Mary Cardwell
Dawson, who through ceaselss, unselfish efforts
long heralded as monumental throughout the
musical world by critiques, editors and musical
commentators, now lives as a symbol of the inherent
and high possibilities in each of us when
our ideals are noble and unselfish.

PRODUCTIONS - The Company has staged performances
in: Pittsburgh, at the Syria Mosque;
Chicago, at the Civic Opera House and Coliseum,
8th Street Theatre, New York's Metropolitan
Opera House, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie
Hall, and Town Hall; and at Washington's Watergate,
National Guard Armory and Clark Griffith
Stadium.

GUILDS of the National Negro Opera Company 
are located in New York City, Washington D. C.,
Baltimore, Md., Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland
and Red Bank, New Jersey.

POLICY - The Company has always operated as
an inter-racial, inter-cultural organization, engaging
hundreds of members from the best symphony
orchestras as: Members of Philharmonic
Orchestra New York, Pittsburgh Symphony, National
Symphony, and others.

REPERTOIRE: "Aida," "Latraviata," and "Il
Travatore" by Verdi; "Carmen" by Bizet;
"Ouauga" by C. C. White; and "Ordering of
Moses" by R. N. Dett; an Oratoria arranged in
operatic form by Mary Cardwell Dawson.

PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES

To create opportunities for young singers and
musicians and to give significance to the possibilities
of their talents.

To inspire composers of all ethnic groups to
the creation of operatic composition, using the
cultural background of Negro spirituals and Creole
folk songs as the motif.

To encourage the desire to understand and to 
develop the cultural appreciation essential to the 
full enjoyment of opera.

[[image - cast photo, "La Traviata"]]
[[image caption - LA TRAVIATA: ACT III]]

A Brief History of the Foundation
The National Negro Opera Foundation is dedicated
to the purpose of perpetuating the work of
the National Negro Opera Company. To this it
seeks the financial assistance of all friends of
opera. The Foundation is a non-profit, organization,
Inc., under the laws of the Distric of Columbia,
and is inter-racial in its composition.

SPECIFIC GOALS, PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES:

The futherance of national opera headquarters
in Washington, D. C., with opera centers located
in several principal cities:

To raise funds with which to assist the Company
in presenting a regular season of opera in
cities where opera guilds are established;
To underwrite Opera workshops;
To grant scholarships to gifted composers,
artists, musicians, and music students;
To utilize opera as a cultural means for developing
interracial harmony, good will, and
understanding.
To encourage and secure wider support and 
activity on behalf of the Company through the
financial assistance of the National Negro Opera
Foundation, thus enabling the Company to continue
its artistic productions as valuable contributions
to the cultural life of America.