The Metropolitan Opera continues its partnership with the Denyce Graves Foundation’s Shared Voices program, the student-exchange initiative that brings together elite historically Black colleges and universities and America’s preeminent conservatories and institutions, for a second year. On Friday, February 28, a new cohort of 18 students will participate in an immersive day-long program at the Met.

Kicking off the first day of Black History Month on Feb. 1, an audience at the Washington National Cathedral spent the afternoon learning about and listening to Black composers, at the concert: “Onward & Upward: The Unsung Heroes of Classical Music.” Musicians were from The Denyce Graves Foundation (DGF), the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts (CAAPA), and The Sam Bonds Chorale. Terry Eberhardt, DGF executive director,  shared the vision for the afternoon event: collaborators bringing out the history of Black classical music. “Our foundation has grappled with the question of how do we put these stories back into history,” said Eberhardt. “We aim to identify hidden voices and restore them to their rightful place through the works we create.”

Lara Downs interviews Founder and Artistic Director, Denyce Graves in her NPR Classical California segment "AMPLIFY." It was from one of her students that she first heard about Mary Cardwell Dawson, fostering the careers of hundreds of young Black singers during an era of institutional racism and segregation. She spearheaded fundraising efforts to restore Dawson’s historic building and collaborated with the Glimmerglass Festival to produce and premiere a new musical play called The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson. That’s just one example of the passion-into-action that drives Denyce and her Foundation.