Ulysses S. Kay; Composed Orchestral Works, Operas

Ulysses S. Kay, a nephew of the immortal jazz figure King Oliver who became a prolific classical composer providing orchestral works and operas for some of the leading symphony orchestras in the United States, has died at his home. He was 78.

Kay, whose death May 20 in New Jersey was announced last week, produced more than 135 works, including five operas, 20 large orchestral pieces, more than 30 choral compositions and 15 chamber works.

Among the orchestras that performed his music were the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony and the Dallas Symphony.

Although his work often focused on fellow African Americans, he told the Record newspaper of Hackensack, N.J., in a 1991 interview: “I write out of interest rather than trying to take on the cause of blackness or whatever.”

“Frederick Douglass,” his last completed work, was based on the later life of the escaped slave who became an outspoken newspaper publisher and abolitionist during the Civil War.

The opera premiered at Newark Symphony Hall with the New Jersey State Opera in 1991.

At the time of his death, Kay was working on a commission for the New York Philharmonic.

He was one of the most published African American composers and received many commissions, according to Constance T. Hobson and Deborah A. Richardson, professors of music at Howard University, who wrote a 1994 biography of him.

His music was marked by complex polyphony, vibrant harmonics and rhythmic diversity.

In 1958, he was among the first group of American composers sent by the State Department to the Soviet Union on an early cultural exchange program.