First to sign a contract with the New York City Opera and First Vocal Professor at the IU Jacobs School of Music
Camilla Williams (1919-2012 was an American operatic soprano who performed nationally and internationally throughout her career. Ms. Williams first began singing at the Calvary Baptist Church in Danville, Virginia where she was born and raised. She received a degree in music from Virginia State College and a Marian Anderson Fellowship in 1943. In 1944 she performed on the RCA radio network. In 1946 she signed a contract to perform with the New York City Opera. That contract made her the first African American singer to sign with a major American opera company.
In 1954, while reprising her role in Madame Butterfly, she became the first African American to perform for the Vienna State Opera. As a concert artist, she toured throughout the United States as well as Asia, Australia and New Zealand. She performed at the White House in 1963 and before Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1977, she was the first African American appointed as Professor of Voice at Indiana University, where she taught until 1997.