Seldom does one find a musician of such versatility as possessed Carl Diton. He shared equal success as a pianist, singer, organist, composer, conductor, teacher, critic, and musicologist. He attended the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, his birthplace, continuing studies in Munich, at Teachers College, Columbia University and the Institute of Musical Art. Edgar Rogie Clark called him one of the important leaders of Negro music in America. He was born in 1886 and died in 1962.