Born in New Orleans, Edward Boatner began performing spirituals at an early age, collecting them for his own use in church. He attended Western University in Quindaro, KS for a year, studying piano and voice, then moved to Boston at the urging of Todd Duncan, He studied for a brief period at the New England Conservatory and later with R. Nathaniel Dett. He moved to Chicago in 1925 and attended the Chicago College of Music, receiving his Bachelor of Music in 1932. In 1933 he became director of the school of music at Samuel Huston College in Austin, TX, and later became Dean of Music at Wiley College in Marshall, TX.

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Boatner settled in New York City in the late 1930s. He focused on performance, composition and teaching, opening his own studio. He trained choral groups and taught private lessons, coaching individuals including George Shirley, Josephine Baker, and Clifton Webb. In addition to directing the choir at the Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, he performed recitals and appeared with the National Negro Opera Company and the American Negro Opera Company. He published more than 300 widely performed arrangements of spirituals sung by Roland Hayes, Paul Robeson, Leontyne Price and Marian Anderson, among many others. He also composed original works, including one unpublished opera, and several essays centered around racism in American society.

 

Boatner was honored by the National Federation of Music Clubs, the National Association of Negro Musicians,the Brooklyn Lyceum, the Detroit Association of Musicians, and the New York Uptown Musicians.