Carmen Velma Shepperd

Carmen Velma Shepperd was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the daughter of David N. Shepperd and Theresa Ann Rodriquez Shepperd.[1][2] She moved to the United States with her parents, and grew up in New York City. Her mother was a dressmaker.[3]

As a young singer, Shepperd earned medals from the New York Music Education League.[4][5] She graduated from Wadleigh High School[6] and earned two diplomas from the Juilliard School in 1934.[7][8] At Juilliard she studied voice with Lucia Dunham.[6][9] She earned a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Columbia University. She pursued further studies in France, in the class of 1947 at the Fontainebleau School of Music.[10]

Shepperd, a pianist and mezzo soprano singer, gave several recitals at New York's Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and other venues.[11] She sang works by Black composer Harry Burleigh as part of "The Three Nightingales", with her Juilliard classmates Ruby Elzy and Anne Brown.[12][13] She sang on radio and in the trio as a young woman.[14]

In 1930,[15] Shepperd founded the Carmen Shepperd School of Music.[16] Her students gave annual recitals at Town Hall[1] and Aeolian Hall.[17] Her school was awarded a service medal in 1931 by the New York Music Week Association, at a Carnegie Hall event,[2] and continued into the 1950s and 1960s.[18][19][20] Among her music students was bassist Lucille Dixon Robertson.[21][22]

Shepperd was an active member of the New York chapters of the National Council of Negro Women,[23][24] Delta Sigma Theta, the American Association of University Women,[25] the National Association of Negro Musicians,[26] the American Caribbean Scholarship Fund,[27] and several alumni associations.[10] In 1980, she accompanied Butterfly McQueen in a performance in Brooklyn.[28]