Donald Heywood(1896-1967)
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Composer ("I'm Coming Virginia"), author and conductor, educated at
Queens Royal College in Trinidad, Fisk University, Northwestern
University (medical school), and Mordkin Moser Conservatory in New
York, plus private study. He was awarded an honorary Mus. D. from the
Caribbean College of Music. He directed traveling theatrical orchestras
and was a member of Will Marion Cook's American Syncopated Orchestra.
He wrote songs for Rosa Raisa, Schumann-Heink and others. He won the
MERRICK award for the greatest contribution of Negro to American music
in 1948. His Broadway stage scores include "Hot Rhythm", "Blackberries
of 1932" and also "Africana", and he trained and presented singers
including Leslie Uggams and Marie Young. Joining ASCAP in 1934, his
other popular-song compositions include "Home Beyond the River",
"Emaline", "Stop Beating Those Drums", "No Need to Tell Me That You
Love Me", "Where Are You Now", "There's a Spirit in My Heart", and
"Morning".
