Skip to main content

Hello. It looks like you’re using an ad blocker that may prevent our website from working properly. To receive the best experience possible, please make sure any ad blockers are switched off, or add https://experience.tinypass.com to your trusted sites, and refresh the page.

If you have any questions or need help you can email us.

Great European Lives

Joseph Bologne

Great European Lives Podcast
Great European Lives Podcast

In this episode, host Charlie Connelly explores the life of French classical composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. He lived an extraordinary life in extraordinary circumstances, performing for and with European royalty and president John Adams called him the most accomplished man in Europe. So, why is it so few have heard of him? The answer lies in the payoff line of a 1786 newspaper feature on the musician that called him a ‘mulatto, the son of an African mother’. He was constantly referred to as the Black Mozart and experienced tropes that are still familiar today constantly whispered behind his back, and even sometimes to his face.

Latest in Great European Lives