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Born: 1911 (?) - Fulton, Kentucky, USA
Died: April 18, 1996 - Rowayton, Connecticut, USA |
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The American tenor and former basesball player, Brent Williams, blamed an older sister for diverting him from baseball to music by teaching him to play the piano. But it was his promising voice and a high school music prize that led him to Hollywood in the 1930's.
Brent Williams worked as both actor and singer until a part in a stage production of "The Student Prince" with Mario Lanza took him to New York for a six-month Broadway run that extended into a lifelong role as the chief social director of the city's classical musical community. Although he had a respectable singing career, including appearances at Salzburg, Tanglewood and Carnegie Hall with such organizations as the Dessoff Choirs and the Cantata Singers, it became apparent that his true talent was for gregariousness.
By the mid 1940's Brent Williams was a mainstay of The Bohemians, the New York musicians' club whose monthly meetings and multi-course annual dinners-cum-concerts have been a magnet for classical musicians since 1907. As the club's longtime secretary, he served as its president during the 1980's and spent 25 years as executive director of its charitable Musicians Foundation, dispensing significant financial support to impoverished musicians and their families. Whether at a club function at a hotel or the National Arts Club at Gramercy Park, Brent Williams, a man of perpetual good cheer, took special pleasure in serving as social sponsor of struggling young musicians. They benefited from his popularity among established artists, a sometimes introspective lot who inevitably opened up when he approached. |
