Orpheus McAdoo

(4 January 1858 - 17 July 1900) An African-American singer and minstrel show impresario.

Biography
Born Orpheus Myron McAdoo on 4 January 1858 in Greensboro, North Carolina He died in Sydney on 17 July 1900.

He graduated from the Hampton Institute in 1876 and became a schoolteacher in rural Virginia. While teaching he also began his singing career, and towards the end of 1885 he joined the Fisk Jubilee Singers led by Frederick J. Loudin, to tour England and some of the colonies from April 1884 till April 1890. In 1899 McAdoo and Belle F. Gibbons left Loudin's group to return to the USA and found his own company, the Virginia Concert Company or Virginia Jubilee Singers. This group would go on to tour extensively in Britain, South Africa and Australia.

His contribution to South African Theatre, Film, Media and Performance
McAdoo and his company's visit to South Africa is the theme of David Kramer's musical Orpheus in Africa (Fugard Theatre, 2015).