Blind Tom Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Dodworth's Hall

Price: $1.00; $1.50 reserved

Performance Forces:
Instrumental

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
29 August 2012

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

23 Oct 1865, 8:00 PM
25 Oct 1865, 8:00 PM
26 Oct 1865, 8:00 PM
27 Oct 1865, 8:00 PM
28 Oct 1865, Matinee
28 Oct 1865, 8:00 PM

Program Details



Performers and/or Works Performed

Citations

1)
Advertisement: New York Herald, 23 October 1865, 7.

“Tom, the Blind Negro Boy Pianist.”

2)
Advertisement: New York Post, 23 October 1865.
3)
Advertisement: New-York Times, 23 October 1865.
4)
Review: New York Herald, 27 October 1865.

“In the case of this extraordinary boy genius triumphs over caste and color. The profession, never generous, and seldom even just to their own color, come to Tom to sneer, and go away believing and astonished. The genius of Tom cannot be denied.  It rises superior to prejudice, and it enables him to do what our educated and brilliant musicians cannot accomplish. He can repeat by an unconscious effort of memory any piece of music after he has heard it once. He seizes the thought at once, and follows it through all its modulations and variations without embarrassment, and with an assurance altogether surprising. Tom comes out in a new accomplishment this evening. He will perform solos on the cornet-a-piston, which he has only studied for a few weeks. Tom is a phenomenon that the world does not see once in a century. Tom’s hall is crowded every night.”

5)
Review: New York Clipper, 30 October 1865, 238.

“Thomas, the colored pianist, is not doing very well in this city.  Dodworth Hall, where he is showing, will scarcely hold six hundred persons, yet even that space is not more than two-thirds occupied; at least such was the case when we attended last week.  The idea of charging one dollar per head, and one dollar and a half for reserved seats, cannot be practiced here successfully by every Tom, Dick, and Harry that comes along.  Sensible white performers would not succeed at such a price.”