From The Times, Feb. 12, 1933.

The focus of our story is the Rev. George Robert Garner III, who
achieved so many firsts in his lifetime that it’s remarkable so little has
been written about him:

Garner was the first African American to solo with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, c. 1927.

He was the first African American teacher in Pasadena.

He was the first African American lead in a production at the Pasadena Playhouse.

According to a 1933 interview in The Times, Garner was born in Chicago and his father was the longtime butler of the Timothy Blackstone household.
According to a 1932 Time magazine feature, Garner sold papers, worked as a bellhop and sang in the choir at Olivet Baptist Church as a young man.

Although Garner was clearly talented, his father opposed a career in music,
insisting instead on something more practical. Garner
eloped with a young musician (presumably pianist Netta Paullyn/Paullyin
Garner) and eventually won the financial support of Mrs. Blackstone and
other arts patrons so that he was able to study in England for six
years.

By 1933, Garner had arrived in Pasadena. The next year, he became the
first African American to star in a production at the Pasadena
Playhouse, "Finder’s Luck," by Alice Haines Baskin. By that time he had
established the George Garner Negro Chorus, which performed concerts at
the Rose Bowl and took part in the first performances of a choral symphony by David Broekman titled "Harlem Heab’n." The chorus was also recognized for performances at expositions in San Diego and San Francisco.

Garner also began the Negro Music Research Foundation, 470
Blake St., Pasadena. Unfortunately, The Times wrote very little about
it except to say that the goal was to preserve spirituals. The group
later opened a center at 440 N. Westmoreland, Los Angeles.

According to a 1938 article in The Times, Garner received a bachelor’s
degree in music education at USC and became Pasadena’s first African
American teacher.

There’s very little about him in The Times in the 1940s except that he
led an interracial chorus that performed Dubois’ "Seven Last Words of
Christ" for Palm Sunday, 1947. The Times critic described Garner as
"one of the city’s outstanding Negro choral directors."

Interesting enough, by 1949, he appears as the Rev. George Robert
Garner III in The Times, which says he was regional director of the
National Assn. of Negro Musicians. He delivered the invocation at a
1953 Republican fundraiser and campaigned in Illinois for the
Eisenhower-Nixon ticket.

In the 1950s, he was music critic and arts editor for the Los Angeles
Sentinel, a weekly serving the African American community, and the
conductor of an interfaith chorus sponsored by the Pasadena YMCA.  He
was also a leader in the Los Angeles County Forum Lyceum.

In 1959, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors honored him as
executive vice president of the George Garner Music Research Center of
Pasadena. He was also recognized as the founder of the Pasadena Assn.
for the Study of Negro Life and History, which was founded in 1937 and met
at First Methodist Church, 500 E. Colorado Blvd.

What became of him after that is unclear. California death records list
a George R. Garner dying Jan. 8, 1971, but it’s not certain if this is the
same man. The only current reference I can find is a chapter of the National Assn. of Negro Musicians in Altadena that’s named for him.

One nice thing about history blogging is that questions can be
open-ended. I’ve asked the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about Garner’s
historic performance and I’ll be interested to see what else turns up.
And then there’s the citations at the Pasadena Public Library. If I get a chance I’ll take a look and see if I can fill in some of the blanks.