When opera superstar Lawrence Brownlee last took the Wortham Center stage in early 2019 for the Houston Grand Opera production of The Pearl Fishers, he noticed something special and wonderful about the casting.

“I looked around and saw how diverse the cast was. The conductor was a person of color, the dancers and actors and everyone else. It was beautifully diverse,” Brownlee tells PaperCity. “I said wouldn’t it be great to have the same type of thing in the audience, that we have a more diverse audience.”

Those onstage observations planted the seeds for a truly unique and rare concert set to melodically flower a year later, Giving Voice: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends Sing Opera, Gospel, and Standards.