Music
Landmark
Portia White
1911 – 1968
The first Black Canadian concert singer to win international fame
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Canada Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
A contralto from Nova Scotia, the great-granddaughter of enslaved people, who became the first Black Canadian concert singer known internationally.
Portia May White was born in Truro, Nova Scotia, the daughter of a Baptist minister who had come from Virginia as a child; her mother's family were Black Loyalists who had settled in Nova Scotia after the American revolution. She sang in her father's choir from the age of six and walked ten miles for singing lessons.
She taught in segregated schools in Africville and elsewhere while training, and made her Toronto debut in 1941 at thirty. Her New York debut at Town Hall in 1944 was a critical success, and she toured North America, Central America and the Caribbean through the 1940s — the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve an international reputation, in a repertoire of European art song and spirituals.
The career was shortened by ill health and by the exhaustion of the touring circuit, and she settled in Toronto and taught voice for the rest of her life; Dinah Christie and Lorne Greene were among her pupils. She sang for Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown in 1964.
She was declared a person of national historic significance by the Canadian government in 1995, and her portrait has appeared on a Canadian stamp.
She taught in segregated schools in Africville and elsewhere while training, and made her Toronto debut in 1941 at thirty. Her New York debut at Town Hall in 1944 was a critical success, and she toured North America, Central America and the Caribbean through the 1940s — the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve an international reputation, in a repertoire of European art song and spirituals.
The career was shortened by ill health and by the exhaustion of the touring circuit, and she settled in Toronto and taught voice for the rest of her life; Dinah Christie and Lorne Greene were among her pupils. She sang for Queen Elizabeth II at the opening of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown in 1964.
She was declared a person of national historic significance by the Canadian government in 1995, and her portrait has appeared on a Canadian stamp.
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