Tona Brown
US violinist, mezzo soprano
Tona Brown is an American violinist and mezzo-soprano who performs internationally and is the first transgender woman to perform at Carnegie Hall. She was the first African American transgender woman to perform for an American president.
Early life and education
Brown had challenges with her gender identity growing up and referred to herself as an "androgynous" child (partly male and partly female in the appearance of indeterminate sex). She started playing violin at the age of 10, attended the Governor's School for the Arts, an art high school program for gifted and talented students. Brown was formally educated at the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music studying violin performance with minors in viola, piano, and voice.
Career
She was selected to perform in a national tour with the "Tranny Road Show", a multi-media tour group of transgender artists that toured from Florida to Canada in April 2006. Brown was chosen by the White House to sing the National Anthem for former President Barack Obama at the 2014 LGBTQ Leadership Gala Dinner at the Sheraton in New York City, making her the first transgender artist to be given this honor. Brown was also selected to be a performer for the 2011 Out Music Awards. On June 25, 2014, Brown performed at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall. In 2015, Brown appeared in For Which We Stand, a full-length documentary film highlighting LGBTQ and straight artists.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tona Brown” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.