This Friday, Houston Grand Opera will present a special digital concert:
Giving Voice 2021: A Celebration of Black Artists in Opera and Song whose co-hosts are the acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee and Houston- favorite, soprano Nicole Heaston.
The idea's was Brownlee's, Heaston said, and the international star rounded up herself and other African American singers who will be performing a range of songs in concert from opera to Broadway to gospel. It follows a sold-out, in-person concert Brownlee put together in January 2020 (pre-COVID) along the same lines that attracted a diverse audience.
"A lot of the time people don't feel like opera is for everyone. They feel like it is for a certain, select few. Especially in the Black community a lot of them don't even recognize that there are a lot of African Americans that sing classical music," said Heaston.