Kathleen Battle Is In Detroit!

She has a fabulous, classically operatic voice.- storied at the New York Met.
She will sing in our Classical Roots concert.
Dr. Augustus Hill will conduct some of the music, and his chorus, The Brazeal Dennard Chorale
will sing.
Leonard Slatkin is conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at our Orchestra Hall here.
Ms. Battle is famous.
Leonard Slatkin is Americana famous.
Orchestra Hall is famous for its acoustics.
Classical Roots is semi-famous.
Dr. Hill is a master at black music with a dual degree Ph.D. in theory and composition from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, as well as a Ph.D. from the U of M in choral conducting.
Recently, Dr. Hill and the Chorale won a Gold and Silver medal at World Choir Games in Ohio.
(Funny aside: one of the presenters at World Choir Games looked at the Chorale with puzzlement
saying, "You don't look Brazilian!")
Orchestra Hall is sold out for tonight, or nearly so.
Brande Everett is not famous. However, she does have some solo parts in tonight's concert.
One of her best pieces can be heard on soprande.com from a concert done in Ireland.
The rehearsals for tonight's concert are a pretty good story.
The chorale does Classical Roots every year. They didn't know a famous opera singer would sing
with them this year. They still aren't quite sure how she chose them.
These rehearsals have been going on all week.
On Monday Ms. Battle was chanting "I chose you!" She had a lot of changes to make, and she wanted total cooperation.
As the week wore on, I guess people snapped into shape, so she became more amenable to what would happen with them on concert night.
Then Leonard Slatkin got onto some artistic temperament shrugging over how Ms. Battle wanted
the music for her spirituals with the DSO. He admitted he hadn't known what a spiritual was until
Dr. Hill told him last year. But he is the conductor, so she has to work with him.
She talked about cadenzas and plagels and the choir felt some "diva" had begun to show up in her.
Late in the week professionals seemed to be in all areas of the hall, offering critiques.
Ms. Battle spoke then through her assistant.
When she spoke to the choir in person she let them know to pronounce the words in the spirituals
the way the original African American composers spoke.
She would not allow any sort of broadcast or taping.
At one point when Ms. Battle felt she was looking at a camera light, she threatened to phone
her management company.
She insisted to the DSO that the Brazeal Dennard Chorale stay on stage for the entire concert.
Kathleen Battle is from Cleveland; but here she is a true citizen.
She called Dr. Hill "Gus" as a sign of their professional camaraderie.
Slatkin, however, kept calling him, 'Mr. Hill".
We Detroiters are so proud on this concert and of our continued committment to the African
American spirituals.
Wish us luck for tonight.