Harry Burleigh

Harry Burleigh was an American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer known for his baritone voice. The first black composer who was instrumental in developing characteristically American music, Burleigh made black music available to classically trained artists both by introducing them to spirituals and by arranging spirituals in a more classical form. Burleigh also introduced Antonín Dvořák to Black American music, which influenced some of Dvořák's most famous compositions and led him to say that Black music would be the basis of an American classical music.

2 December 1866

Born on the same birth day (2 December): Aaron Jones (running back) • Action Bronson • Annalise Basso • Chris Burke (footballer) • Maria Ferekidi • Maëlle Ricker • Mike England • Peter Harding (RAF officer, born 1933) • Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau • Robert Turbin • Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Elgin

Born in the same month (December 1866): Alfred Werner • John Beresford, 5th Baron Decies • Kazys Grinius • Louis Bolk • Maud Gonne • Roger Fry • Traian Demetrescu • Wassily Kandinsky