Matthew Washington Kennedy

Matthew Washington Kennedy (10 March 1921 – 5 June 2014) was an American classical pianist, professor, choral director, composer, and arranger of Negro Spirituals.

The star of his own radio show at age 11, Matthew played the organ to accompany silent films at the segregated cinema where he was given the stage name “Sunshine,” and was dressed in a bellhop uniform.

In 1932, Matthew and his mother sat in the segregated balcony for a live concert given by famed Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff in Macon, Georgia.

His teacher Lois Adler advised Kennedy to return to the South for his college degree, and arranged for him to study at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee on scholarship.

In 1940, Henrietta Myers was director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers at the time, and she asked Kennedy to serve as piano accompanist for the group.

Kennedy was appointed director of the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1957, and he mentored hundreds of young students for the next twenty-three years.

Kennedy had served on resource panels for the Tennessee Arts Commission, and on boards of the Nashville Symphony Association and the John W. Work, III Memorial Foundation.

[16][17] He also appears in a short video titled Matthew Kennedy: The Nashville Student Sit-Ins (2006), produced by The Visionary Project.