Her generous embrace wrapped us kids in the warmth of what a life in music could be, and I caught a radiant glimpse of my own future.įlorence Price: 'Juba' (from Symphony No.

Price when I was a little girl in the San Francisco Opera Children's Chorus. One of my most treasured possessions is a photo taken with Ms. Her journey from segregated Laurel, Miss., to the greatest opera stages of the world was fueled by the freedom of music and art to demolish artificial borders and barriers of all kinds. Leontyne Price sings this gospel-infused Civil Rights Movement anthem with the choir of Rust College, a historically Black institution in Mississippi just a few hours down the road from where she grew up. Leontyne Price: 'I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free' But what they brought with them - their dreams, their courage, their faith in a brighter tomorrow - transformed American life and culture in every possible way. They left behind everything and everyone they knew, taking only what they could carry. It was a defining American journey, the migration of more than six million Black Americans, following a ray of light called hope out of the rural South to the cities of the North, Midwest and West. The freedom to reimagine your reality, to dream a new life, inspires this first movement of Carlos' string quartet Warmth from Other Suns, a musical portrait of the Great Migration.

Find your freedom in the music