Portia White

1911-1968

Portia’s musical journey: A Canadian singing sensation

Portia White was born the third of thirteen children in Truro, Nova Scotia, in 1911. Portia White was a teacher and a musician who achieved international fame as a classical concert singer during the 1940s and 1950s. Her immense musical talent was nurtured by her family, church, community, friends, and the Nova Scotia Talent Trust. Her father, a Baptist minister, became the first Black graduate of Acadia University. After World War I, the family moved to Halifax where her father became the minister at Cornwallis Street Baptist Church. Portia joined the choir at her father’s church when she was six years old, and became the church’s choir director in the early 1930s. After completing her teacher training at Dalhousie University, Portia began teaching school in Lucasville, a Black community just outside Halifax. At the age of seventeen, while teaching school, Portia received her first break, winning a Silver Cup in the Nova Scotia Music Festival. From this experience she qualified and received a scholarship from the Halifax Ladies Music Club. The scholarship allowed her to attend the Halifax Conservatory of Music, where she continued her musical training.

Portia gave her first recital in June 1939, and during the war she performed often in concerts and on the radio. In 1941, Portia met Edith Read, a Halifax native who was the first principal of Branksome Hall, a private girls’ school in Toronto. Edith was incredibly impressed with Portia, and made arrangements for her Toronto debut at the Eaton Auditorium. This was her first of several appearances on the Toronto concert stage over the next two years.

In March of 1944, Portia White had her debut performance at the New York Town Hall before a packed audience. A second Town Hall concert took place that October. Portia was praised for her voice, musicianship, dictation, and her poised and gracious stage presence. Portia’s repertoire was a mixture of classics and spirituals.

Unfortunately, Portia’s international career was brief. Between the years of 1945 and 1948 she toured Canada, the United States and Latin America, but in 1946, she experienced the first signs of vocal trouble. Portia only received modest pay on her tours and had to cover her own expenses. By 1952, she gave up the concert stage and retired to Toronto to teach music. In 1955 she made a rare visit to Halifax to sing to a packed house at the Lord Nelson Hotel ballroom. One of her final performances was a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II at the Confederation Centre in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Portia White unfortunately encountered racism during her musical journey. Some concert halls in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario refused to allow her to perform during the early stages of her career. She was once refused a hotel room in Halifax because they “didn’t allow negroes” to stay there. Portia White’s last public appearance was at the World Baptist Federation Conference in July 1967. She died after a long battle with cancer in Toronto in February of 1968. In 1997 the Government of Nova Scotia created a special award for artists in her memory, a fitting tribute to a remarkable woman who contributed so significantly to the musical life of her community and the world. Portia White was declared “a person of national historic significance” by the Government of Canada, and was featured in a special issue of millennium postage stamps celebrating Canadian achievement.

References:

www.mta.ca/faculty/arts-letters/canadian
www.absoluteastronomy.com