Background
Lawrence was raised by his father, Clark Benjamin Brown, and his stepmother, Cenia Brown. Clark and his father were formerly enslaved.
Lawrence was raised by his father, Clark Benjamin Brown, and his stepmother, Cenia Brown. Clark and his father were formerly enslaved.
While in England, he attended Trinity College for advanced training, where he received education in composition from Amanda Aldridge.
He is best known for his arrangements of Negro spirituals, many of which he performed as accompanist for Paul Robeson, performing on piano and signing harmony. Lawrence"s birth mother died when he was three years old. Education and Early He worked as an elevator operator to make up for the costs his scholarships did not cover.
He made is debut as a concert accompanist for tenor Sydney Woodward, and from there was discovered by tenor Roland Hayes, with whom he toured from 1918 to 1923, including a performance at Buckingham Palace in 1921.
In addition to piano and vocal arrangements, he performed string arrangements with cellist Beatrice Harrison at Wigmore Hall. Following the publication of some of his arrangements of Negro Spirituals in James Weldon Johnson"s Book of American Negro Spirituals, he published his own Negro Folk Songs in 1930.
They toured internationally, including in Paris, London, Ireland, for the King of Spain and the Prince of Wales. Robeson and Brown recorded many of Brown"s arrangements on Radio Corporation of America Victor Records, including "Nobody Knows the Trouble I"ve Seen," "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", and "Joe Hill." "Ballad for Americans" was an international success for the team
The two toured together with the United Service Organizations during World World War World War II Brown did significant research for Robeson"s projects, and actively sought folk music from around the world.
He was frequently contacted by conductors seeking obscure folk music He also had relationships with writers Lloyd Louis Brown and Langston Hughes. Brown retired in 1963 after Robeson"s career ended.
