Matthew Kennedy: One Man's Journey

Synopsis

A documentary on the life of Matthew Kennedy, one of the first internationally acclaimed African American concert pianists, and former director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee. The film contains footage of interviews with Dr. Kennedy, live performances, radio broadcasts, studio recordings, and interviews with his former students and colleagues. Born in the segregated South in 1921, Matthew Kennedy was known throughout his home state of Georgia as a child-prodigy. At age 12 he attended a concert given by the famous Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff in Macon, Georgia in 1932. Kennedy describes what he remembers of the concert from his perspective in the segregated balcony for “Colored.” He was also the star of his own radio show in the early 1930s. At that time, Kennedy's stage name on radio and in the cinema – where he played the organ to accompany the silent films – was “Sunshine.”