Ellis, Mildred Katharine, 1906-2004
Dates
- Existence: 1906 - 2004
Biographical Note
Pianist, music educator, and musicologist Mildred Katharine Ellis was born on September 30, 1906 in Johnson City, Tennessee. She began her music studies at an early age, where she participated in numerous school, church, and community activities. Ellis graduated from Langston High School in 1924 as valedictorian then received her B.A. degree from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in French and music. She also did some graduate level coursework in French and music at the University of Michigan from 1936 to 1937. There, she received an A.M. degree with a major in music theory and composition in August 1937.
She studied composition with Stefan Wolpe and advanced piano with Irma Wolpe in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on scholarship at the Settlement Music School from 1939 to 1940 and 1945-1947. She also did advanced research in music theory at Harvard University in summer 1941. She earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in musicology from Indiana University in 1954 with minors in music theory and French. She was also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Following her graduation, she performed publicly as a pianist and accompanist.
Dr. Ellis worked at numerous institutions across her long career including in high schools and in higher education. One of her earliest positions was at the Christiansburg Institute in Cambridge, Virginia, where she taught high school English and French courses and worked as the choral director from 1931 to 1936. She also taught at Harris High School in Mississippi; Johnson C. Smith College in North Carolina; Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (AM&N) (now known as University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff); Southern University in Louisiana; and Howard University in Washington, D.C. She also had administrative and teaching duties at Morristown College in Tennessee, Wilberforce University in Ohio, and George Fox College in Oregon. Beginning with her work at Howard University in 1969, she spent the remainder of her career in Washington, D.C.
She was also highly involved in professional organizations including Phi Lambda Theta, Mu Phi Epsilon, the American Musicological Society, Music Teachers National Association, the American Association of University Professors, and the National Guild of Piano Teachers. She was instrumental in reorganizing the Washington D.C. Branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. in which she served as president. She was also a member of the Washington D.C. chapter of the Fisk University Alumni Association.
Dr. Ellis was recognized widely for her contributions as a music composer in Washington, D.C. In 2000, she was the first inductee to the Washington, D.C. Hall of Fame in the area of Cultural Arts. Dr. Ellis died February 19, 2004.