Margaret Jeanette Allison Majors was the daughter of a physician father (Dr Munroe Majors) and church organist and music teacher mother (Estella Bonds).

When they divorced Margaret would live with her Mother and assume her maiden name, and the one that we know her by today. Bonds. Margaret Bonds.

Bonds was a child prodigy pianist and would later go on to forge a close friendship with the poet Langston Hughes, and become a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance movement.

Like many black composers of her era, Bonds was breaking barriers. For a while took lessons from another giant in the classical music world, Florence Price. And she was the first ever black soloist to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

She’s best known for her unique settings of African American Spirituals and has written music for solo voice, voice and piano, piano, chorus and pieces for orchestra. #BlackHistoryMonth2023

@LintonStephens When people ask me which historical era I would choose if I could time travel I always say the Harlem Renaissance. I would be hanging with my best buds Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes.