WFMT is deeply saddened to learn that soprano Jessye Norman has died at age 74. As a tribute to her inspiring life and career, we are re-sharing this story from May 19, 2014, when Ms. Norman herself visited WFMT, treating audiences to an hour of music and conversation with host Kerry Frumkin and even reading an excerpt from her memoir.

NEW YORK (AP) — Jessye Norman, the renowned international opera star whose passionate soprano voice won her four Grammy Awards and the National Medal of Arts, has died, according to family spokesperson Gwendolyn Quinn. She was 74. A statement released to The Associated Press on Monday said Norman died at 7:54 a.m. EDT from septic shock and multi-organ failure secondary …

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.

As classical organizations seek to bring more newcomers to the concert hall, have traditions of audience silence worn out their welcome?

In 2009, composer Laura Karpman unveiled a new work, Ask Your Mama, during Carnegie Hall’s HONOR! Festival that celebrated African American music and culture. Inspired by Langston Hughes’s poem of the same name, Ask Your Mama is a multimedia exploration of the black experience. But Karpman herself is not black. “I’m a white composer, living in white privilege, setting the …