The grandson of a freed slave, Harry Burleigh (1866-1949) worked odd jobs while studying music at the National Conservatory of Music in New York. There, his baritone singing voice drew the attention of Antonín Dvořák and was credited for introducing the Czech composer to African-American spirituals. He spent 52 years as the soloist at St. George’s Episcopal Church in New York, after a troublesome appointment with church members opposing him because of his race. He composed his own art songs and also arranged spirituals in ways that made them easily understandable to Western composers and musicians.