Bennett’s early career peaked in the 1960s as he topped the charts with “San Francisco” and became the first male pop solo performer to headline at Carnegie Hall, releasing a live album of the 1962 concert.

Belafonte stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with his time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.

Just a few of the Black voices from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

Humble. Thoughtful. Legendary. After more than 70 years, Mavis Staples’ career is greater than any single word.

A dynamic balance of intensity and optimism holds true throughout the season, which features such program titles as Next, Boundless, and Unapologetic.

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. day, we’ve compiled an assortment of multimedia tributes — music, visual arts, poetry, and dance — to the monumental Civil Rights leader.

Timuel Black, who died on October 13, 2021 at age 102, lived a truly extraordinary life. Hear an excerpt of a 2013 WFMT interview with the influential historian, activist, veteran, and teacher.

The Chicago Sinfonietta has over 30 years of experience making classical music relevant, accessible, and reflective of Chicago’s diverse communities. This season, the orchestra is tackling diversity through the lens of joy.

In observance of Juneteenth, WFMT is sharing music by Black composers and performers throughout the day.

The Chicago Sinfonietta’s longstanding mission of bringing communities and people together through the symphonic experience takes center stage this weekend with the Sinfonietta’s annual tribute concert to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., featuring orchestral settings of spirituals, folksongs, hip hop, and Mahler’s Ressurection Symphony.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Blanche Burton-Lyles, a concert pianist who was mentored by pioneering opera singer Marian Anderson, has died. She was 85. Burton-Lyles died of heart failure Monday at a rehabilitation center, according to Slater Funeral Home in Philadelphia. Burton-Lyles was born and raised in Philadelphia. She learned how to play classical piano at the age of 3. Burton-Lyles was …

“Summertime” from George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess is one of the one most popular songs in the Great American Songbook. But did you know that neither the tune to “Summertime” nor the lyrics are by George Gershwin?

DETROIT (AP) — Aretha Franklin, the undisputed “Queen of Soul,” has died at age 76 from advanced pancreatic cancer.

Though African Americans have faced oppression throughout American history and the arts, Black composers’ contributions to music have been nothing short of history-changing.

On May 16, 2018, what would have been Studs’s 106th birthday, listeners will have more access to this incredible gold mine of materials than ever before.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inspiring remarks from the first annual Berlin Jazz Festival in 1964.

The Chicago Sinfonietta recently announced its 30th season line-up, as well as the launch of its Commissions by Women Composers Project, a season-long effort to close music’s gender equality gap by commissioning, performing, and recording, works by women composers.

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?”

“Even though I lived in a Southern community where segregation and discrimination were part of our everyday lives, I always dreamed of a day when these conditions would not exist.”

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.”

Joan Baez has always said she is an activist first and an artist second. At 75 years old, her priorities have not changed. This fall, Baez is on a tour of major cities throughout the United States to, in part, raise awareness about the nation’s criminal justice system.