{{Short description|American composer and pianist (1922–2006)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}} {{Use American English|date=July 2023}} {{Infobox classical composer | name = Rachel Eubanks | image = Rachel Eubanks.jpg | caption = Eubanks in 1996 | birth_name = Rachel Amelia Eubanks | birth_date = {{Birth date|1922|9|12}} | birth_place = San Jose, California | death_date = {{Death date and age|2006|4|8|1922|12|9}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California | alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|University of California (B.A. 1945)|Columbia University (M.A. 1947)|Pacific Western University (D.M.A. 1980)}} }} '''Rachel Amelia Eubanks''' (September 12, 1922 – April 8, 2006) was an American composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist.{{sfn|Hinson|Roberts|2007|p=363}}{{sfn|Stewart|2006}}

==Life and career== Rachel Amelia Eubanks was born on September 12, 1922 in San Jose, California, US.{{sfn|Stewart|2006}} Her parents, Joseph Sylvester and Elizabeth Amelia Eubanks, struggled during the Great Depression, still managing to take Rachel and her brothers Jonathan and Joseph to the concerts of numerous musicians: Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson.{{sfn|Stewart|2006}} Settling in Oakland, California, Eubanks attended Roosevelt Junior High School and later Oakland High School.{{sfn|Walker-Hill|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9/page/432/mode/2up 433]}} Eubanks learned both clarinet and alto horn in elementary school, later taking piano lessons.{{sfn|Stewart|2006}} She wrote her first composition at 11 years old; after finishing a poem for Mother's Day, Eubanks considered it incomplete and decided to set it to music.{{sfn|Eubanks Conservatory}} Other early pieces include the works ''Just You and I'' and ''Memories of Mother of Mine''.{{sfn|Eubanks Conservatory}} Her first serious work came at age 14: the ''Waters of the Ganges'' for piano, inspired by the stories of a family friend who went to India as a missionary.{{sfn|Eubanks Conservatory}}

Eubanks married Mac MacDonald, a Baptist minister, in 1950.{{sfn|Eubanks Conservatory}} Her future plans did not align with the traditional responsibilities for the wife of a pastor and the two divorced in 1952.{{sfn|Eubanks Conservatory}} Eubanks studied at a number of American universities, beginning with University of California, Berkeley, where she studied under Charles Cushing receiving a Bachelor of Arts in composition and music theory in 1945.{{sfn|Walker-Hill|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9/page/432/mode/2up 433]}} She then received a Master of Arts, studying composition under Douglas Moore, Otto Luening and Normand Lockwood.{{sfn|Walker-Hill|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9/page/432/mode/2up 433]}} Further study included the Eastman School of Music in 1947; Berkeley with Roger Sessions in 1948; organ study at Capitol University from 1949–1950; economics, philosophy and religion at Ohio State University from 1950–1951; film scoring at the University of Southern California with Miklós Rózsa; education and language at California State University, Los Angeles in 1954; various subjects at the University of California, Los Angeles; ethnomusicology at California State University, Long Beach in 1975; music administration at Westminster Choir College in 1976; and a DMA in composition at Pacific Western University.{{sfn|Walker-Hill|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9/page/432/mode/2up 433]}} In 1977 Eubanks studied in Paris, France with Nadia Boulanger through the American Conservatory there.{{sfn|Walker-Hill|2007|p=[https://archive.org/details/fromspiritualsto00walk/page/363 363]}}{{refn|Euabnks was part of numerous African-American women composers who studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, including Maude Wanzer Layne, Julia Perry, Evelyn LaRue Pittman, Irene Britton Smith, Dorothy Rudd Moore and possibly Nora Douglas Holt{{sfn|Walker-Hill|2007|p=[https://archive.org/details/fromspiritualsto00walk/page/363 363]}}|group=n}} She received a DMA from the Pacific Western University (1980).{{sfn|Eubanks Conservatory}}{{sfn|Walker-Hill|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9/page/432/mode/2up 433]}}

Eubanks headed the Albany State University, Georgia,{{sfn|Stewart|2006}} and she later taught theory and composition and was head of the music department at Wilberforce University 1949–50.{{sfn|Cohen|1987|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationalenc0001cohe/page/224/mode/2up 224]}}{{sfn|Price III|Kernodle|Maxile|2011|p=228}} After settling in Los Angeles (LA), she began offering piano lessons out of her apartment.{{sfn|Stewart|2006}}

Eubanks founded the Eubanks Conservatory of Music and Art in 1951 as its first director.{{sfn|Walker-Hill|2007|p=[https://archive.org/details/fromspiritualsto00walk/page/368 368]}} Based in LA, it "began in modest accommodations on 47th and Figueroa Streets", later upsizing for increased enrollment.{{sfn|Price III|Kernodle|Maxile|2011|p=228}} In its heydays, the conservatory offered Associate and Masters degrees in music performance, composition, theory and history.{{sfn|Price III|Kernodle|Maxile|2011|p=228}} Initially a nonprofit organization, the Conservatory diminished in enrollment during the 1990s, repeatedly moved locations and has "never returned to its glory days".{{sfn|Stewart|2006}}

Eubanks died on April 8, 2006 in Los Angeles, California from colon cancer.{{sfn|Stewart|2006}}

==Music== Eubanks' compositional ''œuvre'' includes piano music, songs, orchestral and choral works.{{sfn|Hildegard Publishing}}

The ''Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire'' included her ''Five Interludes'' (1984), describing it as "Tense atonal writing, contrapuntal textures, unified by similar intervals in all pieces."{{sfn|Hinson|Roberts|2007|p=363}} The Canadian pianist Helen Walker-Hill recorded the first and last of the ''Five Interludes'' for the 1995 ''Kaleidoscope: Music by African-American Women'' album.{{sfn|Hildegard Publishing}}

Her other works include the ''Symphonic Requiem'' for orchestra and four solo voices (1980) as well as a cantata, written for choir and orchestra.{{sfn|Hildegard Publishing}}

==List of compositions== Sources:{{sfn|Cohen|1987|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationalenc0001cohe/page/224/mode/2up 224]}}{{sfn|Walker-Hill|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9/page/432/mode/2up 433]}}

* ''Prelude'' (1942), piano * ''Five Interludes'' (1982), piano

==References== ===Notes=== {{Reflist|group=n}}

===Citations=== {{reflist}}

===Sources=== * {{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Aaron I. |year=1987 |orig-year=1981 |title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers |edition=2nd |volume=1 |publisher=R. R. Bowker |location=Chatham |isbn=978-0-9617485-2-4 |oclc=16714846 }}<!--More to use--> * {{cite book |last1=Hinson |first1=Maurice |last2=Roberts |first2=Wesley |year=2007 |orig-year=2002 |title=Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-01023-0 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=kQDXAQAAQBAJ}} }} * {{cite book |editor-last1=Price III |editor-first1=Emmett G. |editor-last2=Kernodle |editor-first2=Tammy L. |editor-link2=Tammy L. Kernodle |editor-last3=Maxile |editor-first3=Horace |year=2011 |title=Encyclopedia of African American Music |volume=1 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara |isbn=978-0-313-34200-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofaf0001unse_t4w1 }} * {{cite news |last=Stewart |first=Jocelyn Y. |date=May 13, 2006 |title=Rachel Eubanks, 83; Music Teacher Set High Standards for Her Students for 50-Plus Years |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-may-13-me-eubanks13-story.html |access-date=August 9, 2024 }} * {{cite book |last=Walker-Hill |first=Helen |author-link=Helen Walker-Hill |editor-last1=Floyd Jr. |editor-first=Samuel A. |editor-link=Samuel A. Floyd Jr. |year=1999 |title=International Dictionary of Black Composers |volume=1 |publisher=Center for Black Music Research |location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-884964-27-5 |oclc=41333249 |url=https://archive.org/details/internationaldic0001unse_k3t9 }}<!--More to use--> * {{cite book |last=Walker-Hill |first=Helen |author-link=Helen Walker-Hill |year=2007 |orig-year=2002 |title=From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music |edition=2nd |publisher=University of Illinois Press |location=Urbana |isbn=978-0-252-07454-7 |oclc=71369367 |url=https://archive.org/details/fromspiritualsto00walk }}<!--More to use; just 39–40--> * {{cite web |title=About Us |publisher=Eubanks Conservatory |url=https://the-ecma.org/about/ |ref={{sfnRef|Eubanks Conservatory}} |access-date=10 August 2024 }}<!--More to use--> * {{cite web |title=Eubanks, Rachel |publisher=Hildegard Publishing Company |url=https://www.hildegard.com/product-category/composers/rachel-eubanks/ |ref={{sfnRef|Hildegard Publishing}} |access-date=10 August 2024 }}

{{portal bar|Biography|Classical music|Music|United States}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eubanks, Rachel}} Category:1922 births Category:2006 deaths Category:African-American classical composers Category:African-American women classical composers Category:American women classical composers Category:California Miramar University alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:Musicians from San Jose, California Category:UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni Category:African-American women pianists