[Singing in German] Curry, voice-over: Although internationally renowned singer Denyce Graves performs in the most prestigious opera houses in the world, she's also local.

Hi.

Hello.

So why don't we go up to the garden?

Sounds great.

That's one of my happy places.

Well, all of this is my happy place, actually.

It looks like it.

Ha ha ha!

Graves: I love getting my hands dirty, and I always wanted space.

I imagine people, when they think of you on stage in gowns, are not thinking of this at all.

I know.

Curry, voice-over: Graves shares her time between the world's most famous concert stages and Parkton, Maryland, where she maintains an 88-acre farm.

Look at that.

Yeah.

Look at that, so we'll put that in our salad today.

How do you marry a life where you stand on stage with something like this?

I feel like this place is what allows me to continue to do the work that I'm doing.

♪ For love is... ♪ Curry, voice-over: With a vast repertoire of countless critically acclaimed performances, Denyce Graves became one of the most celebrated mezzo-sopranos in the world, and her journey started right here in Washington, D.C. [Gospel choir singing] Curry: Graves grew up with her mother, brother, and sister on Galveston Street in Ward 8 in Southwest D.C.

Her early exposure to music was singing gospel in her church.

Growing up, opera was not something she was aware of, much less a future she envisioned.

I'm excited to learn how she got to where she is today.

Denyce, thank you for inviting us into your home to chat today.

It's a joy for me, too.

Thank you.

So for a young, Black woman to grow up in Southwest D.C., how does opera become the genre that you want to pursue?

That was quite the journey from there to here.

My music teacher from kindergarten, actually, Judith Grove Allen, told me about the Duke Ellington school.

[Organ playing] ♪ The Duke Ellington School and the Kennedy Center have a relationship, and I went to a final dress rehearsal of Beethoven's "Fidelio."

[Woman singing in German] [Man singing in German] That really did it for me-- I just thought, "I don't know what this is, but this is what I want to do"-- that and also hearing a recording of Leontyne Price sing and being just stunned by the sheer beauty of her voice.

[Price singing in Italian] Specifically Leontyne.

Specifically Leontyne because she sings, and you hear the choir singing.

[Singing in Italian] Graves: It's just one of those exquisitely, heartbreakingly beautiful voices that will stop you right in your tracks... [Singing in Italian] ♪ to see this woman who looks like us doing this thing called opera and saying, "I would love to be able to do this with my life."

And did this lead to wanting to go to a conservatory?

Yes.

I graduated early from the Ellington School, went to Oberlin College, and then went to New England Conservatory and then went on to Houston Grand Opera.

[Chorus singing "Habanera"] Curry: Her star rose with her first appearance in the title role in the opera "Carmen" by Bizet at the Minnesota Opera in 1991, and from there she took to the world's great opera houses, and fame among opera fans followed.

Patti LaBelle: I think she has the most special voice that I've ever heard.

Curry, voice-over: Her celebrity crossed over to mainstream with appearances with pop stars, at national memorials, and even on "Sesame Street."

I just want to ask, the path to opera when you have a voice like this but live in a community that maybe doesn't know or understand about opera, how is it that?

So this is part of a really large conversation in terms of American history and what has been intentionally left out of the telling of the story.

During the pandemic, there was a student of mine who was singing outside of what was formerly known as the National Negro Opera Company that was created by Mary Cardwell Dawson.

She was this Black woman who wanted to be an opera singer, so she went to the New England Conservatory.

That was 1925.

For her to star as a leading lady on the world's opera houses as a Black woman was not gonna happen, so her response to that was, She hired all the singers and the orchestra and the conductor, the director, the designers, and she took them all over the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera at a time where Black performers were not at the Metropolitan Opera.

The union would not allow them to do standard repertoire, so they did a piece by African American violinist and composer Clarence Cameron White called "Ouanga."

Of course, it was to great acclaim.

She taught piano.

She taught voice.

She taught languages.

She taught stage direction and launched the careers of so many spectacular artists, like Robert McFerrin, Ahmad Jamal, Lillian Evanti, Camilla Williams.

The first woman impresario of opera was a Black woman.

I did not learn that in the conservatory, not at all.

You started the Denyce Graves Foundation, which is highlighting voices of Black opera singers that none of us knew about.

Our Hidden Voices program is showing that Black classical performers have existed from the very, very beginning.

We are working on books, working on film, on creations of works of art that tell the story of these wonderful, great heroes, so that's the Hidden Voices program, and then there's the Shared Voices program, which is an HBCU conservatory exchange program.

Choir: ♪ Oh, when we get way over in Beullah lan' ♪ ♪ Yes, way over in Beullah lan'... ♪ We pair a HBCU student with a conservatory student, and they learn from each other.

♪ Way over in Beullah lan' ♪ Graves, voice-over: We know that HBCUs have a great tradition of glee clubs and choral groups and some of the most spectacular voices we've ever heard.

[Singing in French] Graves: We've got Morgan State, Peabody, Fisk, and Morehouse and Howard, Oberlin College, Manhattan School, and the Juilliard School.

I'm just over here beaming because the idea of access, opportunity, and community are all part of what you're doing, and that is-- As a young, Black musician growing up, that's what was missing.

That's exactly right.

The foundation's work is much larger than music.

We go through the lens of music because that's been the area of my experience.

♪ My soul is a witness ♪ We're celebrating and lifting into rightful prominence those great individuals who have contributed to our cultural fabric, who make America what it is, but who have been left out of the telling of the story.

It's something that has hurt us all because why is it that when I went to the conservatory, I had white professors say to me, "What are you doing here?"

Right.

I don't necessarily blame them.

They've heard a story that didn't include a face like mine.

And this is why it's exciting for me to know that you're in conservatories teaching.

It's so important because it helps us all as a nation.

The reason that this country is so great is because it's made up of all kinds of different people who have contributed to make it what it is.

It isn't just one group of people who've done all the work and done everything.

I've portrayed all kinds of characters.

For more than 40 years, I've told all kinds of stories, and the stories that's important for me to tell now are those stories of truth, are those stories of inclusion, are those stories that remind us that we are more alike than unalike.

That's so vitally important for our survival, so we're gonna keep sharing so that people realize that it's a place for all types of people.

Well, Denyce Graves, you are the Leontyne Price of your generation, and I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with you today.

I loved every moment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing this.

This March, you can find Denyce Graves at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture for Community Day with rising opera singers from the Shared Voices program.

To learn more about the Shared Voices program, visit thedenycegravesfoundation.org.