(calm music) - [Instructor] Left behind you.

(man murmuring) Camera.

- [Man] Yeah rolling.

(calm piano music) Performance on three, take one.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to "Music for social Justice."

I'm your host, Damien Sneed.

Sometimes we are struck by stories of people from far away places who's strength leaves us in awe.

Other times, the injustices of the world land on our doorstep and hit us right in the heart.

In both cases, the response is emotional and our two musicians in this episode are tapping into that response to enlighten us in their own way.

In 1939, even one of the most celebrated vocalists of her time was not welcome to perform in certain concert halls due to the color of her skin but Marian Anderson stood up and with her beautiful voice exclaimed, "I belong here."

Her story and her voice inspired Mezzo soprano, Jane Bunnell who has enjoyed an illustrious international career for 40 years, including 30 roles in more than 420 performances with the metropolitan opera.

Jane shares some of Marian's story and the art song it inspired.

(calm music) - I was born in Delaware where my dad was a music teacher in a little town called Fulton and then a little town called Milford (calm music).

My dad was a music teacher in a small town and so therefore he was also the baseball coach.

He integrated the baseball team, integrated the choir, integrated the band.

This was not taken well (calm music).

He lasted about two years in Delaware and then we moved to New Jersey.

So I was raised by someone that didn't let prejudice stand in the way of what was right and what needed to happen.

So in this environment in which I was raised the thing that music represented and enabled was taking people over barriers, bringing people in.

If there was a wall opening it and letting people come in.

In my life I've seen how one note, one piece of music, one group can change a life.

So our responsibility and our mission is to use and harness the power of music to change hearts, to bring people together.

(calm music) I'd like to speak about Marian Anderson who I think may have gotten lost a little bit in history and we're bringing her to the fore right now in this important time in our name history Marian Anderson was born in 1893 and she had a wonderful voice as a child could not get into a performing arts school because of her color so her family found a way to get her voice lessons.

She was able to do some competitions and get herself to Europe to do some study, particularly in Austria and then to do a phenomenal recital tour.

She toured Scandinavia, sang for the king of Sweden, sang for the king of England.

Arturo Toscanini, one of the most famous conductors of the 20th century heard her and said, "this is a voice one hears in a 100 years."

So after her tour in Europe, Sol Hurok, her manager who managed all the great artists of the time brought her back to do her tour in the United States.

The normal course of action would be find a great hall and have a great artist singing it.

So Mr. Hurok asked for Constitution Hall.

Constitution Hall in Washington, it would be like the Carnegie Hall of New York.

The Daughters of the American Revolution own Constitution Hall and they refused.

They said she could not sing there.

Now this is in the 1930s and our president is Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt was quite a woman.

She went to the DAR asked again, no response.

So she sent them a very pointed letter and resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution because she thought they did not represent what the United States of America were about.

She got some of her friends to find another venue and that venue was the Lincoln Memorial.

(calm music) So here we are, it's Easter Sunday, 1939.

The Daughters of the American Revolution have refused their hall, their 4,000 seat hall to Marian Anderson.

However, we are able to have 75,000 people integrated, listening to this great artist.

People that would not have been able to sit in that hall since it was segregated.

The integrated crowd, the integrated audience on the radio this event became much greater than that concert would ever have been.

(calm music) The piece I've chosen to perform is Eleanor Roosevelt, "Marian Anderson's Mink Coat" by Jake Heggie a foremost American composer.

When you listen to this piece, you'll hear the beginning in the piano is very dissonant.

It's seconds, it's notes that rub, cultures that rub.

(calm piano music) An undertone is the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee" which will recur throughout and be quoted and the libretto is by Gene Scheer.

Gene brings the event, Marian Anderson wearing her mink coat.

He talks about the Lincoln Memorial but he brings in what we need to do, who are we?

What kind of people do we wanna be?

What kind of Americans do we wanna be?

And that's a message that I think is very potent.

(calm music) Our social justice series at MSU is so important because right now we need ears hearing music, ears hearing the sounds of different cultures, enjoying the sounds.

Enjoying sounds that they haven't heard before, listening to something that maybe is out of their experience.

So with this series and with this music we're trying to take inequalities, take things that are not fair, take injustices that still remain, work through them and help to break the walls down.

(audience applauding) - Genius, genius draws no color line and so it is fitting that Marian Anderson should raise her voice and tribute to the noble Lincoln who mankind will ever honor.

(audience applauding) (calm piano music) ♪ My country, 'tis of thee ♪ ♪ Sweet land of liberty ♪ ♪ Of thee we sing ♪ (calm piano music) ♪ Listen, listen ♪ ♪ Marian Anderson is singing of thee ♪ ♪ Beyond compromise, beyond recrimination ♪ ♪ Beyond the anger of a divided nation ♪ ♪ Marian Anderson is singing ♪ ♪ Wearing this elegant mink ♪ ♪ She stood on the steps beneath Lincoln's stony stare ♪ ♪ Intoned our nation's hymn ♪ ♪ And let freedom ring and ring and ring ♪ ♪ Oh what a sound of thee I sing ♪ ♪ There are some paths, no map can ever trace ♪ ♪ But from Lincoln's steps to Charleston's 'Amazing Grace' ♪ ♪ With every step on the way ♪ ♪ I think about what she showed us that day ♪ ♪ No one can make you feel inferior without your consent ♪ ♪ No one ♪ ♪ Who are we ♪ ♪ Who are we beyond compromise ♪ ♪ Beyond recrimination ♪ ♪ Beyond the anger of a divided nation ♪ ♪ Marian Anderson is singing of thee ♪ (calm music) - Marian Anderson went on to break barriers as the years went on including being the first black vocalist to perform at the metropolitan opera in New York.

No matter what wrong you're trying to make right, it takes courage to step outside of your comfort zone.

Speak the truth and take action.

Vocalist Gedeane Graham is from a small town in Mississippi and the tragic death of one of her childhood friends has been tremendously hard on her and the family of her friend.

Gedeane believes justice has not been aggressively pursued for her friend so she is using her gifts to try to bring aid and a sense of peace to her community.

(calm music) - The music that I chose to perform is "To a Brown Girl Dead" by Margaret Bonds and "I Believe' by Dave Ragland.

(calm piano music) I picked "To a Brown Girl Dead" because that is dedicated to one of my closest childhood best friends, Dominique Anne Henry.

Unfortunately, she was murdered in 2019 by the hands of an ex-cop.

It's still being an ongoing trial and unfortunately from us being from a very small town Base Springs, Mississippi I wanted to use whatever platform to help the family fight and get the word out to know that we are still fighting for justice for Dominique.

(calm music) The first song, even though it was powerful and impactful it was heavy and I still wanted to invoke hope and I still wanted to leave on a positive note.

Her mother has went through so much and she still is so strong and I'm sure that she's had so many sleepless nights.

She's probably have been in and out of different ways of depression because unfortunately Dominique's birthday is on Christmas and she was murdered days before Thanksgiving of 2019.

So to know that not only you birthed a life on Christmas day but every Christmas you are reminded that you won't get to, you know, see your daughter.

You won't be able to spend another birthday with her or, you know, when Thanksgiving is approaching that you have to relive that moment of her murder.

Especially because of how it happened because literally pictures were surfacing of her dead body in the car, and people could, you know drive by and see so it was a lot for the town.

It's easy for everyone to want to give up.

So I'm hoping that a lawyer or some type of support team can maybe, you know, spring together to be that type of added support that she needs to give that added push to get this case tried and bring justice for Dominique.

(calm piano music) "I Believe," this piece is just so beautiful and it was just a simplicity of it.

The words to that song is just so uplifting and inspiring and powerful.

The words were found on a Stonewall in Germany in a concentration camp.

And Dave Raglin when he was composing, he wanted to convey on people, a movable, unconquerable belief and I think that he did just that with those lyrics.

♪ I believe in God ♪ ♪ I believe in God ♪ I just love all the lyrics about it because it just at the end it ties into my personal faith is that you believe in God.

You believe that God is gonna make a way outta no where and that's what I really, really enjoy about the peace most.

I think that music can definitely uplift.

I think that it can motivate and it can inspire.

I am someone who thrives off music.

I'm a person who sings their sentences, makes up songs just to get a point across.

I'm a shoulder to cry on, I'm a sound board, I'm a person where if you just need to laugh I'm that person.

I'm that person.

I've been singing, honestly I wanna say my first serious solo I was about six or seven in church.

I was happy because I knew I wanted to sing and I would hear everyone else but I was shy.

I'm actually a shy person believe it or not.

It doesn't come off that way sometimes but I am and I was just so excited and I just wanted to share, but it was like as soon as the director gave me the microphone, I was like I don't wanna do it but as soon as the music started it was like I was a whole nother person and moments where I know and this could just be for me being from Mississippi meaning it could be a Southern thing but I fondly remember like my grandmothers when it was bad weather they would always hum like a hymn.

And that would, they would hum a hymn to either put the baby to sleep or they would hum hymn when it was like bad weather and it just seemed to just calm the environment.

So that's what I believe music does.

Music is healing.

(calm music) (calm piano music) ♪ With two white roses on her breasts ♪ ♪ White candles at head and feet ♪ ♪ Dark Madonna of the grave she lies ♪ ♪ Lord death has found her sweet ♪ ♪ Her mother pawned her wedding ring ♪ ♪ To lay her out in white ♪ ♪ She'd be so proud she'd dance and sing ♪ ♪ To see herself tonight ♪ (calm piano music) ♪ I believe in the sun ♪ ♪ I believe in the sun ♪ ♪ I believe in the sun ♪ ♪ I believe in the sun ♪ ♪ I believe in the sun ♪ ♪ I believe in the sun ♪ ♪ Even when it is not shinning ♪ ♪ Shinning, shinning, shinning ♪ ♪ I believe in love ♪ ♪ I believe in love ♪ ♪ I believe in love ♪ ♪ I believe in love ♪ ♪ I believe in love ♪ ♪ I believe in love even when I, I feel it's not ♪ ♪ Not, not, not ♪ ♪ I believe in God ♪ ♪ I believe in God ♪ ♪ I believe in God ♪ ♪ I believe in God ♪ ♪ I believe in God ♪ ♪ I believe in God even when, when he's silent ♪ ♪ Silent, silent, silent ♪ ♪ I believe in the the sun ♪ ♪ In love ♪ ♪ In God ♪ (calm music) - Thank you for being a part of our program.

I'm Damien Sneed and I appreciate not only our artists and their dedication but also each of you.

Together we can achieve social justice in every space, which is so desperately needed.

(calm music) (instrumental music) I'm Damien Sneed, it's my honor to have the title of host of this special series "Music for Social Justice."

We'll hear some moving performances from excellent musicians.

Most importantly, we're going to hear from the musicians themselves as they put into words what social justice means to them and how the power of music transcends all.

(instrumental music) (upbeat music)