Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones #blackhistorymonth

January 5, 1868 or 1869 – June 24, 1933
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, was an African American soprano. She sometimes was called “The Black Patti” in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. Jones’ repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music.

About Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones

Matilda Sissieretta Joyner was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, to Jeremiah Malachi Joyner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Henrietta Beale. By 1876 her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where she began singing at an early age in her father’s Pond Street Baptist Church.

In 1883 Joyner began the formal study of music at the Providence Academy of Music. In the late 1880s, Jones was accepted at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1887, she performed at Boston’s Music Hall before an audience of 5,000.

In February 1892, Jones performed at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison. She eventually sang for four consecutive presidents — Harrison, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt — and the British royal family.

Sissieretta Joyner Jones became the first Black American to sing at the Music Hall in New York (renamed Carnegie Hall the following year) in June of 1892. Among the selections in her program were Charles Gounod’s “Ave Maria” and Giuseppe Verdi’s “Sempre libera” (from La traviata).

The New York Echo wrote of her performance at the Music Hall: “If Mme Jones is not the equal of Adelina Patti, she at least can come nearer it than anything the American public has heard. Her notes are as clear as a mockingbird’s and her annunciation perfect.”

Due to racial inequalities, many of the venues Jones performed at, family and friends could not attend. In response, Jones started her own company performing her own skits, music, dancing, comedy, and aerobics. She toured the country for almost 20 years at white and black venues.

After success as an opera singer, Jones retired from performing in 1915. She devoted the remainder of her life to her church and to caring for her mother.

Jones was forced to sell most of her property to survive.She died penniless on June 24, 1933.

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