Houston Grand Operaâs
Giving Voice concert last January was a triumphant celebration of Black voices in opera. Now Houstonians can give a standing ovationâalbeit from their living roomsâfor its sequel, which is available to stream through February 21.
This yearâs concert features several of the most renowned African American opera singers in the country, including tenor Larry Brownlee and soprano Nicole Heaston as co-hosts and performers. Joining them are baritone Donnie Ray Albert, tenor Frederick Ballentine, mezzo-soprano and HGO Studio alumna Zoie Reams, and soprano Karen Slack, as well as four current HGO Studio artists: baritone Blake Denson, bass Cory McGee, soprano Raven McMillon, and bass-baritone Nicholas Newton. Kevin J. Miller, assistant conductor with HGO, accompanies them on piano.
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.
Houston Grand Opera’s ‘Giving Voice’ gives platform for Black opera singers By Chris Gray, Correspondent
Appearing in Houston Grand Opera’s production of “The Pearl Fishers” in early 2019, Lawrence Brownlee looked around him and experienced something of a revelation.
“The cast was so beautifully diverse, and I just thought, ‘Wow, this is great,’ recalls the Ohio-born singer. “Houston Grand Opera has a longstanding tradition of doing color-blind casting anyway, and so to see that they were continuing that idea was something that spoke to me.”
Brownlee is, simply put, one of the world’s leading operatic tenors. For HGO, he’s appeared in six productions since 2007, also including Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio” as well as Rossini’s “The Italian Girl in Algiers” and “The Barber of Seville.” Hoping to cultivate the same kind of diversity in the audience that he saw onstage, he used his connections with the company t