Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones
| Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones | |
|---|---|
Jones in 1897
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Matilda Sissieretta Joyner |
| Also known as | The Black Patti |
| Born |
January 5, 1868 Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | June 24, 1933 (aged 65) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Genres | grand opera, light opera, popular music |
| Years active | 1887–1915 |
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, (January 5, 1868 or 1869 – June 24, 1933) was an African-American soprano. She sometimes was called "The Black Patti" in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. Jones' repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music.
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, United States, to Jeremiah Malachi Joyner, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Henrietta Beale. By 1876 her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, where she began singing at an early age in her father's Pond Street Baptist Church.
In 1883, Joyner began the formal study of music at the Providence Academy of Music. The same year she married David Richard Jones, a news dealer and hotel bellman. In the late 1880s, Jones was accepted at the New England Conservatory of Music. On October 29, 1885, Jones gave a solo performance in Providence as an opening act to a production of Richard III put on by John A. Arneaux's theatre troupe. In 1887, she performed at Boston's Music Hall before an audience of 5,000.
Jones made her New York debut on April 5, 1888, at Steinway Hall. During a performance at Wallack's Theater in New York, Jones came to the attention of Adelina Patti's manager, who recommended that Jones tour the West Indies with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Jones made successful tours of the Caribbean in 1888 and 1892.
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