An Evening With Denyce Graves (Chicago 2005)

This hour-long, one-on-one interview program provided a rare and unique look inside the life and career of legendary mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves. Taped live in Chicago, Illinois at Northwestern University’s Thorne Auditorium on Saturday, October 22, 2005, this program was the ninth in The HistoryMakers’ An Evening With... series. Academy Award nominated actress Angela Bassett interviewed her friend Denyce Graves with Discover Financial Services LLC serving as the event’s title sponsor.

Denyce Graves is recognized worldwide as one of today’s most exhilarating vocal stars. In this program, Graves revealed how her talents catapulted her from the inner city of Washington, D.C. to the majestic halls of the New York Metropolitan Opera and other notable opera houses throughout the world. She also explained the spelling of her first name and talked about the history of African Americans in the world of opera, her family history and her future – her young daughter.

Through photographs and video footage from some of her performances, An Evening With Denyce Graves showed why Denyce Graves is one of the most treasured stars working in the world of opera.