In Black America; Opera Star Ms. Barbara Conrad

fb experience in american society nancy growing up in a family of five children as texas copper throws thing from barbour county that's mine she had no formal musical training and to move on or an attending college at the university of texas at austin ms caraway now rising star with the metropolitan opera was discovered by singing harry belafonte today barbara cameron is one of this country's most distinguished that suit sopranos i'm jackie hanson and this week a focus on opera singer barbara conrad in black america i was really moved

somewhat surprised at the response to my operatic singing was as great as that of the spirituals gospel because people although they may not speak the language and maintain it exposed to it and if he'd given it to them from your heart but as with all start they'll get most people would get it they really were opera singer barbara turner at this and soprano who's acting talents beauty and broad range of broader international attention colorado's receive signed contracts with both the metropolitan opera new york city and the vienna state opera she's a graduate of the university of texas music department scour admission won acclaim and roll of common first before we used an opera later the new york city opera these two performances help to establish heirs won the most exciting young missiles in recent years i have a young lady from pittsburgh to

become and just in an opera singing oh nine year there were different ways to knowledge and they haven't faked well maybe the engine starts with singing ain't being very fortunate you know born into a family of really could do just to give to people with brothers that she's older that i knew was that is was it is a wonderful pianist who loves the lyric i'm singing who loves singing and then having to so many members of the particular the maternal side of my family voices and voices and voices wonderful wonderful voices and so there was a kind of tradition and the family the smith family and the fall actually catches all those people were my ancestors and my relatives all saying in the church

and they sang for their own pleasure really been doing that for as long as i remember can remember and for all those decades before and so when i came along with a voice my brother denied smith i recognized it and because mice sister already gone are needed at her to think that added to the island to say he taught me i have a wonderful wonderful things and as that fight the first piece i learned by rote all is that a big soprano so from beethoven's mount olive's i mean i didn't know how difficult it was but also realize that i loved it too and he could have persuaded me with my temperament to do anything i didn't want to do and so it was a sudden that a progression the classic story being brought up in the role of northeast texas baptist church sing in the choir but with the bad its own support and encouragement

or family that really loved to make music and a directly a brother who was very gifted and curse a lot of his hits is love and passion for it while he was really focusing on law professor of gospel or no heart well it's also the music that distinction right now believe me when when when bees they wrote as carmen it was his sole you call it this bad is gonna do when they need it we called it's all it's one of the things that we've got to get out of being just being in a sort of capsule in this part of the world is only exists all over the world you know the africans have it the indians have of the chinese have it the japanese ever the french have a good idea to say that it's a version of soul don't ask me really i can't answer those questions is i never i mean i sang

some gospel but never really saying i was never a gospel singer in addition that you're not talking about it's not a federal law that endorsing it was a lot but that was not my daughter not my as they say johnson o'connor turns over the map which is particularly i went to where i was to go mean that things don't happen next and so it was and yet just born out of the pre disposition to what the times called a lyric out of singing which is a more only studied form it was just my response to compose like gustav mahler and to disappear guarantee into richard wagner all those people but it came out of my own background of rich rich richard saw the scene which was a spiritual which was gospel which was a hymn but i still think that for me it went another direction had to happen to

to the university of texas to a major news over other institutions well at the time you say i started off approach being in college the fact of the matter was i would i had a wonderful counselor at that school with whom i talked with quite frequently and that at that at that time at prairie view the new cisco was not as strong as it is now and i wanted to in general to be more exposed to a greater could agree to the broader world of music are all the reasons for helping the beer going into this point in my life where it's like when the university they degraded an ink and graduate level it seemed a wonderful opportunity for people who were concerned about my education

including myself and joe it was a school right here at home that was also cause are affordable singing my daddy my dream school was of course i think for most black kids so imagination and maybe still it is to go to fisk you know he grew up with the fisk jubilee singers and that was where music was happening and my soul is always vibrating to that wherever music making was i wanted to be an active part of it wyatt immersive texas you were denied the opportunity to perform in your first opera is still have any ill feelings about being denied the opportunity to before have are things you know i mean you can go back twenty five years later no added that if you're put in a position which you root beer hear the university and education

and other powers were demanding a certain a certain aren't really rephrase the question it seems like several questions and one will force he said no ill feelings about you know robin i'm not the first positive and that's that's kind of an it's a little vague ill feelings know to say directly to that question no ill feelings i think this is perhaps this trip for me is the opportunity to get acquainted again i think the only way it's like like with any relationship and mine was a huge relationship there was me and then there was me and that was universe the texans are the only way to bridge gaps the overweight too cute get rid of any any little gray areas is to have another dialogue and two

kiss and make up because that's not by temperament but to have an honest dialogue universities as you have an opportunity to be an encounter with harry belafonte it affect your life change that didn't happen quite that way the story ran was sent over a p ep system and belafonte read about it in the new york times he at the time called me to say he was in my corner of a prominent blacks who were like the late henry jackson incident twenty eight seven days junior and joe that was so that was how we first contacted was not as it flew an absolutely marvelous the day he called me the day will be imprinted on my heart and mind forever oh i was exhausted that state as i am this morning on having had no sleep no rest from from the from the most of people love it in the press

was hot on my heels i was in fact on my way out to do with my house mother to escape to just get some sleep and there he was on the phone and everyone knew belafonte was on the phone if i didn't know is who we'll throw out the dormitory the funders on the phone and allow it reacted like a young girl that i was twelve and had been arrested out a squeal to watch you left the university of texas at austin that you look to new york and auditioned for me after what happened was armed cash it won't some competition the only a talent yeah they'll make a talent search and that that was flown to a cleveland and german belafonte decided it was time we met

after he he'd been involved with me for a while that the state no we're talking a few years later and now i'm invited a common sent an audition with prominent people in the in the opera world and that included meister faust who played and did use it always agree busy and accepted set up and i went and had the time of my life things to mr belafonte who set up all sorts of wonderful things first time to the opera first time to my first broadway show radio city music hall at the whole thing a mix that i did saying for these people and it was determined that i had the basics the opposite where i remember that mr danis is saying well in some it is hours seventy five percent hard work the rest his talents were

used to in syria south were small town mama i'm all a small town small town in a small town nine eleven day to catch my father my mother say that i grew up with a valid id did not know the meaning of small time with small town town i would say i would classify myself much more down home there's a part of me that will always always be that way for which i'm grateful because i think there is a quality about becoming quote successful in getting into a tremendous international part that if you're not very well rounded eating lift you off some strange places i've never had that i really have never had that inclination has a lifespan for barbara van world traveler oh it's just gotten richer and richer and more

but the year i didn't know that i had such a facility although i was told that to the terrorist attacks of the languages which i enjoyed immensely and so learning just learning other languages italian french german and getting acquainted with coaches which we've all been influenced by sitting in the music world the art world are just getting to know folks all of the world to discover that they just folks dna and that if you speak the language there's nothing more folksy i remember singing and a festival summer a mall which is in the calendar year singing in our surroundings which would be like a very pastoral one to be like out on the pasture for us you know one of these deadlines and me singing italian arias only and having everybody practically singing along with me what

have the effect for me of being very little different from my grandmother my uncle bob's dying up on him and everybody join in i mean if it fits it has been very enriching have you been back home recently in as their new ventures for our listening in pittsburgh you get attacked there is an interest in and people which is we're all artistic in sensibilities begin you cannot say that it's your taxes is where your life is ever going to be in the center for the for the opera but i come from a new pre appreciation that was actually i think we've gotten some converts i think we've gotten people who steal art will never be maybe up roadblocks but to have much more open here i was very surprised all but two years ago my brother and i did at memorial recycler none of my

father and the community turned out from miles around it was very gratifying and i was really i'm moved and somewhat surprised that the response to my operatic singing was there is great is that of the spirituals gospel because people although they may not speak the language and maintain it exposed to it and if he'd given it to them from your heart which is where it all starts they'll get most people would get it they really were what is mean to you being a part of the metropolitan opera the high holidays wonderful that means it's changed meaning his change of the years as a young singer it meant everything as a singer as i developed a parent up and be recognized the world of

music at this date is like any other institution in that it has oh the wonderful aspect of it and the difficult ones which is it's hard work and at the bottom line do anything and it isn't leaf or see yourself as a role model for aspiring opera singers degree black opera singers will see myself no i don't see myself that way but certainly other young singers whom i meet two particular backs the knife and just young seniors in general aren't because it is the dream every aspiring young singer to if not the metropolitan something on that level to taint it absolutely we hear about barbara we're bowing team prize but other black options than to tell someone you want to know the names of some of them on my goodness or you might well you've named

jack ely right oh god why you know i again you have to start me with mcmillen anderson and paul robeson so the voices i grew up loving and in the cause you had to todd duncan who i mean these new recordings for being granted but still you know and then at the rappers and so much we know have an absolute to mean that apart and has a number of very exciting like sing isn't it on his roster of that store was from the male thing is we have a simon estes who is just an absolutely gorgeous face battle who is an internationally recognized an acclaimed singer on of course we have shirley verrett didn't respond korean pop leone and the tune and creech

kathleen battle we are live this is a young taxing you know in it and what the developers you enjoy performing i have some favorites now i used to with ease be difficult to say certainly you'd have to say that one the great vehicles for mezzo soprano is carmen samson and delilah cause when you're first one that's wrong with the houston houston that after that lead owen oh lordy the role of us a chain there are the role of an airbus in it there is one of my most favorite roles the role of the polling site though a wagner i do the frick is in rangoon and

valkyrie and eight well touting a love scene of failed we do i mean those are some women mostly the crows you'll get nervous before every single performance is that a sign that you still are a more this is off still exciting everyday well the nerves of that i've changed quality bit like obesity nerves to the point where i didn't know where my name practically now there is a there's excitement i would say is that it is the height of the hyper sensitivity that too i feel that are just must get into art lifted this was big very personal in this artist and dance and i develop that i developed and i you'll be reading and things of that sort to balance it so that he's just excited and not a nurse a takeaway for the performance as i am by nature very high

strung it's nothing you want as barbara like to do to get away from the showbiz experts of your career all about like singing i was a family man has been thinned i have followed brother and two nieces and a sister and her husband live in new york and close friends and go up to visit my friends through its restaurants with markers were presented to her family that we sit around and just shoot the breeze in eat well there was damage the soul food and it ended i was deleted record but i don't do that anymore because the degree i love i love the ocean one of the great things about moving to the east coast was being able to enjoy the thing i discovered a little bit that it works by going to the beach now i love the ocean i absolutely loved it and i loved to mountain climb to don't do very much but i do write a lot i read

i've always better with the syphilis reader i guess really great deal on listen to music i play the piano a lot i go to concerts occasionally myself i love the theater occasion ago their love dancing cage to get a dead concert lot of things i do love love is there a time though some of the things in tournament a quiet evening at home either alone with my husband or with my family is sitting in a kitchen is some of my most favorite bedtime who is your favorite contemporary artist today no way be anticipated to say that talking about evening know performing artists are noting that first of all i don't have such a thing that i have a number of people don't have great admiration for any possibilities

over recording albert yes ob there already is the porgy and bess with the cleveland orchestra lorin without connecting of pouring in bands and being released there's chocolate will be recording of hamlet in london awed by tama with joan sutherland in general mills of mice to bunning connecting it is a very exciting project and genesis us think here yeah it's it's a very it's an exciting time of my life metropolitan opera star robert conway if you have a comment a like a bridge is a cassette capitals problem why this your dresses in black america longhorn radio network ut austin austin texas seventy seven want to swim like america's technical loses they win over as anchor parker oh i'm john ensign does this week you've been listening to black america reflections of the black experience in american society