FRANK JOHNSON
(Francis Johnson)
Haitian Independence in 1804 was a momentous event for the free American Blacks. Johnson, a prominent Philadelphia musician and bandleader, played for Philadelphia Society. He was the first American Musician to play before integrated audiences as he was the first populizer of the American Pops Concert, and the first Black Musician to publish music in America. He also was the first American of any race whose band or ensemble was invited to Europe where he toured and played before Queen Victoria who presented him with a silver keyed bugle, the instrument he made famous.
Francis "Frank" Johnson was an American musician and prolific composer during the Antebellum period. African American composers were rare in the U.S. during this period, but Johnson was among the few who were successful. Performing as a virtuoso of the (now rare) keyed Kent bugle and the violin, he wrote more than two hundred compositions of various styles—operatic airs, Ethiopian minstrel songs, patriotic marches, ballads, cotillions, quadrilles, quicksteps and other dances. Only manuscripts and piano transcriptions survive today.
