{{Short description|American composer (1917–1995)}} '''Ulysses Simpson Kay''' (January 7, 1917, in Tucson, Arizona – May 20, 1995, in Englewood, New Jersey) was an American composer. His music is mostly neoclassical in style.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Randel |first=Don Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jEGpMqRcQjIC |title=The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music |publisher=Belknap Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-674-37299-3}}</ref>

==Life and career== Kay, the nephew of the classic jazz musician King Oliver, studied piano, violin and saxophone.<ref name="De Lerma">De Lerma, Dominique-Rene. [http://www.dramonline.org/albums/african-heritage-symphonic-series-vol-ii/notes "African Heritage Symphonic Series"]. Liner note essay. Cedille Records CDR061.</ref> He attended the University of Arizona, where he was encouraged by the African-American composer William Grant Still. He went for graduate work to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and there worked under Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers.

Ulysses Kay met the eminent neoclassical composer Paul Hindemith in the summer of 1941 at the Berkshire Music Center and followed Hindemith to Yale for a formative year of study from 1941 to 1942.

After a stint as a musician in the United States Navy during World War II,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kay |url=https://songofamerica.net/composer/kay/ |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=Song of America |language=en-US}}</ref> Kay studied at Columbia University under Otto Luening with the assistance of a grant from the Julius Rosenwald Fund.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library Acquires Papers of Composer Ulysses Kay {{!}} Columbia University Libraries |url=https://library.columbia.edu/about/news/libraries/2009/20091002_ulysseskay.html |access-date=2024-05-13 |website=library.columbia.edu}}</ref> In addition to this prize, Kay received a series of five other significant awards in the year following his discharge from the Navy including the Alice M. Ditson Fellowship, a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an award from the American Composers and American Broadcasting Company,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ulysses Kay |url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/816/Ulysses-Kay/ |access-date=2024-05-10 |website=www.wisemusicclassical.com |language=en}}</ref> a $500 award from the third annual George Gershwin Memorial Contest for "A Short Overture," and a $700 award from the American Composers Alliance for his "Suite for Orchestra."<ref>{{Cite web |date=1943-01-01 |title=Ulysses Kay |url=https://composers.com/composers/ulysses-kay |access-date=2024-05-10 |website=American Composers Alliance |language=en}}</ref>

Following this successful period, he lived and studied further in Rome from 1949 to 1953 thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship, the Rome Prize and a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship.<ref name="De Lerma"/>

Kay worked for Broadcast Music, Inc.,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ulysses Kay |url=https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/musicdb/artists/8011/ulysses-kay |access-date=2024-05-10 |website=Hollywood Bowl |language=en}}</ref> a music performance rights organization, from 1953 to 1968.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Perkins |first=Lee S. |date=2013-02-01 |title=Ulysses S. Kay (1917-1995) • |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/kay-ulysses-s-1917-1995/ |access-date=2024-05-10 |language=en-US}}</ref> In 1968 he was appointed distinguished professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York. After two decades teaching there, he retired.

As a composer Kay was known primarily for his symphonic and choral compositions. He also wrote five operas. His final opera, ''Frederick Douglass'', was mounted in April 1991 at the New Jersey State Opera with Kevin Maynor in the title role and Klara Barlow as Helen Pitts Douglass.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/16/arts/review-music-the-struggles-of-a-black-leader-in-old-america.html?scp=1&sq=Klara+Barlow&st=nyt|title=Review/Music; The Struggles Of a Black Leader In Old America|work=The New York Times |author=Bernard Holland |author-link=Bernard Holland |date=April 16, 1991| access-date= June 20, 2009}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

A resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, Ulysses Kay died due to complications of Parkinson's disease at the age of 78 at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center on May 20, 1995.<ref>Sullivan, Ronald. [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/23/obituaries/ulysses-kay-prolific-composer-and-educator-is-dead-at-78.html "Ulysses Kay, Prolific Composer And Educator, Is Dead at 78"], ''The New York Times'', May 23, 1995. Accessed September 21, 2011. "Ulysses Kay, a professor of music and a prolific composer of five operas, 20 large orchestral works and scores of choral, chamber and film compositions, died on Saturday in Englewood Hospital in Englewood, N.J. He was 78 and lived in Teaneck, N.J. The cause was Parkinson's disease, his family said."</ref>

==Operas== * ''The Juggler of Our Lady'' (composed 1956, premiered 1962) * ''The Boor'' (composed 1955, premiered 1968) * ''The Capitoline Venus'' (composed 1969, premiered 1971) * ''Jubilee'' (composed 1974–1976, premiered 1976) * ''Frederick Douglass'' (composed 1979–85, premiered 1991)

==Sources== *Program notes by Dominique-René de Lerma for the African Heritage Symphonic Series Volume II (Cedille Records CDR 90000 061)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://library.colum.edu/archives/collections/cbmr.php Center for Black Music Research] *[http://www.bruceduffie.com/kay.html Ulysses Kay interview], July 20, 1985. Also translated into Japanese and [https://www.happano.org/9-ulysseskay posted] *[https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_7341105 Finding aid to Ulysses Kay papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kay, Ulysses}} Category:1917 births Category:1995 deaths Category:20th-century African-American musicians Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:African-American classical composers Category:African-American male classical composers Category:American male classical composers Category:African-American opera composers Category:American opera composers Category:Musicians from Teaneck, New Jersey Category:Musicians from Tucson, Arizona Category:Columbia University alumni Category:University of Arizona alumni Category:Eastman School of Music alumni Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in New Jersey Category:Pupils of Paul Hindemith Category:Pupils of Bernard Rogers Category:American male opera composers Category:Classical musicians from Arizona Category:Tucson High School alumni Category:20th-century American male composers