Remembering Vivian Laverta Ladson, 88, of Fort Greene

Information provided by Etta M. Ladson

Vivian Laverta Ladson, founder and CEO of the Heritage Symphony Orchestra is being remembered for the unique opportunity she provided for scores of African American youngsters to master the instruments of the world’s most demanding music. Under the auspices of her own privately held Ladsonian Foundation, youngsters in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill community, over a period of 25 years, were hosted by Pratt Institute as they learned to perform with excellence enough to be invited to play before an audience as elitist as West Point.

Vivian Ladson was a child prodigy, beginning to play the piano at age 6. Her portfolio of achievements is now housed in the Hall of Fame of Hunter College of the City University, but her own interest in the musical education of underprivileged students derives from her family’s legacy begun in the 19th Century in South Carolina.

Vivian Ladson is a fourth generation descendant of legendary Daniel Joseph Jenkins, founder of the “Jenkins Orphanage” for black homeless youngsters after the Civil War, and the five orphanage “pick-a-ninny” bands whose excellence in music took them from south Carolina to their new, great “jazz” performances on the great stages of Europe.

Vivian Laverta Ladson walked in both the tradition of her family and in the Arts heritage of historic Fort Greene.

A native New Yorker, she loved the city community and chose Brooklyn to be her home. She was supported maximally by the community she called home. Away from Fort Greene she was, for 30 years, a Confidential Secretary for commissioners of the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Inside Fort Greene, she was a long term resident, and had lived in Ryerson Tower for 50 years.

At her passing in July 2018, she was 88 remarkable years old.

Photo courtesy of Etta M. Ladson