Elmer Bartlett was a highly acclaimed choir director and organist. Churches where he worked in include the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. He received several awards in the course of his career including first prize for directing the Los Angeles AME's choir at a 1926 choir competition at the Hollywood Bowl. By 1940 he had moved to Elgin Illinois. He continued to direct choirs and play the organ for various A.M.E. churches. First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Los Angeles, is the oldest church founded by African Americans in the City of Los Angeles, dating to 1872. Biddy Mason established the church to minister to the mind, body, and soul of the community. This church served as the cornerstone of the community for spiritual growth, social uplift, and economic development. Group portrait of over 250 African Americans assembled one the stage of the Hollywood Bowl as one choir for a Los Angeles City-wide gospel singing competition. Winning choir director Elmer Bartlett, is probably seated in front just to the left of the American flag. The women are wearing white dresses, and the men are dressed in black suits. A painted garden landscape backdrop is visible behind them. On July 12, 1926, there was a choir contest at the Hollywood Bowl featuring ten of the “Leading Negro Choirs.” The winning sixty-voice choir of the AME church at Eighth and Towne, led by Professor Elmer Bartlett, performed Dudley Buck’s “Festivia Te Deum No. 7." The concluding piece of the program was a mass choir performance of the Negro national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Written on back of photo: Prof. Elmer Bartlett directing combined church choirs at the Hollywood Bowl.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b18_f01_004a.tif ark:/21198/z1d23fs4
Subject
African American choral conductors African American choirs African Methodist Episcopal Church (Los Angeles, Calif.) Bartlett, Elmer C., b. 1887 Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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