Home | Black Artists | Page 4
Ken Ehrlich recalls some of his favorite memories working with “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin.
DETROIT (AP) — Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul,” has died at age 76 from advanced pancreatic cancer.
Learn how Lawrence Brownlee, hailed as one of the world’s leading tenors, is developing new works that respond to issues facing men of color today.
If you get “so emotional” every time you hear Whitney Houston sing, this video may make you reach for the tissues. This video will have you wondering just what Whitney Houston couldn’t do as a singer. She steals the show from opera powerhouse Luciano Pavarotti, and renowned musicians Sting and Elton John in this video of the singers sharing a …
Soprano Whitney Morrison began singing before she could even speak. Through her early years of singing in church, she never thought she would pursue a career in opera. Now, Morrison is one of 12 young artists selected for the 2017/2018 ensemble at Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. The Ryan Opera Center is one …
In 2015, former President Barack Obama awarded Shirley with the National Medal of Arts.
Hear a rarely-heard live performance by Mahalia Jackson’s broadcast from the Morrison Hotel in 1975 courtesy of the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.
Author and activist Maya Angelou is best for her autobiographical memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. But have you heard Angelou sing?
Maestro Muti sat down with Sheila Jones, coordinator of the CSO’s African American Network, years ago to ask, “How do we bring the African American community into Symphony Center?”
Frederick Douglass wasn’t just an abolitionist leader, author, and statesman – he was also a music lover. He wrote passionately about the importance of music in communities of enslaved people in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In fact, he wrote that music gave him his “first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never …
Mahalia Jackson is undoubtedly one of the most influential singers of the 20th century. Learn about how musicians and music historians are changing the conversation about the “Queen of Gospel.”
Music and dance provided an outlet for enslaved people to express their sorrow, though often their cries of pain sounded quite the opposite to slave owners.
Before Nina Simone became one of America’s most iconic jazz musicians, she wanted to have a career as a classical pianist.