African-American composer, arranger, and performer, Henry Thacker Burleigh was one of those late 19th century musicians who heeded Antonin Dvorák's challenge to go forth and create a national school of music. In so doing, he became America's first prominent black composer. Born in Erie, PA, on December 2, 1866, to free-born parents, Burleigh learned the plantation melodies from his maternal grandfather, who had been a slave. Working to supplement the family's income, the young Burleigh used his rich baritone to garner him a number of singing jobs in local churches before winning in 1892 a scholarship to the National Conservatory of Music in New York, which was then headed by Dvorák.

At the Conservatory Burleigh sang for the Czech master the spirituals and minstrel songs of the mid-19th century. So moved by his renditions was Dvorák that he urged the young African-American to assemble and set down the folk tradition of his slave ancestors. As an editor at Ricordi, Burleigh began to publish these spirituals in 1911. His 1916 collection, JUBILEE SONGS OF THE UNITED STATES, arranging the African-American melodies for piano and voice, became the standard recital fare for the great singers of the day, as well as repertoire for vocal ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers or the Hampton Singers.

A beloved and respected artist, Burleigh's career and compositions did a great deal to break down color barriers and further the understanding of and appreciation for the role African-American music has played in the larger history of American music. His arrangements brought the spirituals and "sorrow songs" (as W.E.B. DuBois called them) out of their earlier home, plantation, and minstrel settings and onto the classical concert stage, where they were performed by black and white singers alike. His own songs enriched the repertoire with a deep sensitivity to text and emotion, as well as a singer's sense of the dramatic, while his career as a performer did a great deal to pave the way for artists like Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson, and Marian Anderson.