Countermelody

Episode 131. Happy Birthday, Reri Grist! (Black History Month 2022)

Posted February 18, 2022 • 01:42:45

The great African American coloratura Reri Grist was born on leap year 1932. We celebrate her upcoming 90th birthday with a tribute featuring many of...

Episode 130. Hutch (Black History Month 2022)

Posted February 15, 2022 • 01:31:28

Leslie Hutchinson (1900-1969), known universally as Hutch, rose from his beginnings in Grenada, to become the biggest music star in London in the 1930s....

Episode 129. Leontyne Price in Concert (Black History Month 2022)

Posted February 11, 2022 • 01:35:02

The great Leontyne Price, soprano par excellence and beacon to a world that desperately needed (and still needs) her, turned 95 this week. In celebration...

Episode 128. Leslie Uggams (Black History Month 2022)

Posted February 8, 2022 • 01:39:22

I would bet (though I can’t guarantee it) that I was one of a very small number of white 8-year-old Wisconsin boys who, on Sunday nights in the summer...

Episode 127. Maria Ewing in Memoriam (Black History Month 2022)

Posted February 4, 2022 • 01:47:13

The exceptional, distinctive Maria Ewing died of cancer on January 9 at her home outside of her native Detroit at the age of 71. Even before her...