Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869-1954) was born in Cleveland, Ohio to parents who had been free and owned land since before the Civil War. He learned piano in his youth, began composing at 18, and studied composition under Johann Heinrich Beck, conductor of the Cleveland Symphony. Referred to by many as “the Black Wagner,” Freeman moved to Denver where he wrote his first opera, The Martyr, and organized an amateur opera company to stage the work. Finding few opportunities in the traditional opera world due to his race, Freeman wrote compositions for Ernest Hogan’s blackface musical shows. By the end of his life, he had composed nearly thirty operas and founded important music organizations in New York, such as the Negro Grand Opera Company and Harlem’s Salem School of Music.