When Fred Peterbark arrived at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2006 as a graduate voice student, he discovered that the College of Music had typically done little to mark Black History Month, and he decided to change that.
Last February, with the support of college leaders, the Springfield, Va., native put together a program that combined readings of poems by Langston Hughes with art songs and spirituals arranged by African-American composers.
The event drew about 150 people and was enough of a success that Peterbark raised his ambitions considerably this year, organizing a larger-scale concert at 4:30 p.m. Sunday titled “Black Pioneers in Music Performance.”
“The one thing I’m hoping people take away from this event are the other significant stories of black history,” he said. “History is a story, but it can only live on if people tell the story.”
The concert will pay tribute to eight familiar and not-so-familiar African-American artists — living and dead — who were trailblazers in international opera, including:
• Contralto Marian Anderson, who is perhaps best remembered for her historic, consciousness-raising concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday 1939.
• Soprano Mattiwilda Dobbs, who was the first African-American to sing at La Scala in Milan, Italy, and later became the first to be offered a long-term contract with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
• Baritone Todd Duncan, who sang the role of Porgy in the original cast of “Porgy and Bess” and was the first black to join the New York City Opera.
• Soprano Leontyne Price, who in 1960 became the first black to sing leading roles at La Scala and repeated the feat at the Metropolitan Opera a year later.
• William Grant Still, a composer who wrote several operas, including “Troubled Island,” which premiered at the New York City Opera in 1949.
The concert will feature George Shirley, one of the artists being honored. The 73-year-old emeritus professor of voice at the University of Michigan was the first black tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera.
Also featured will be noted soprano Leona Mitchell, who has performed with many of the world’s leading opera companies, and five other singers, with the University Symphony Orchestra providing accompaniment.
Peterbark studied with Shirley as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, an experience that helped make him more aware of many of these African-American trailblazers, several of whom remain little known.
“While this is an educational event,” he said, “it is a big thank you to those who have already paved the way so that singers such as myself don’t have to necessarily worry about being the first to do anything.
“That fight has already been fought. That door has already been opened, and we are beneficiaries of being able to continue to walk through.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“Black Pioneers in Music Performance”
Classical music. Macky Auditorium, University of Colorado at Boulder. A concert paying tribute to eight African-American trailblazers in the opera world, including tenor George Shirley, who will be among the guest performers. 4:30 p.m. Sunday. $10-$50. 303-492-8008 or
