Baltimore Singer's Big Voice Touches Siberia

by NPR STAFF

"My Mom said, 'life isn't either, or, it's and.' And I think that's why I do so much, maybe too much."

Lea Gilmore was pregnant and married at 18. She describes herself as a "statistic." But, she tells NPR's Celeste Headlee, lessons learned from a family of "very strong Southern women" meant that she did not allow that to dictate her circumstances.

Trained as a classical pianist, she has developed an international career as a gospel, blues and jazz singer. She returned to the more traditional genres of music that she grew up with in church and at home because she is "such an emotional person" and loves the freedom that they give. "Gospel means 'good news' and so we have the freedom to tell the story the way that we want to tell the story. And you'll never hear the same songs sung the same way the same time because we are singing it as we're feeling it at that moment," she explains.

Gilmore has played to packed audiences as far away as Siberia, but she says that they all respond to this emotion in her music. "It goes beyond race, ethnicity, where we're from. The music is soul-to-soul speaking. There is so much we can say to each other through music."

A devoted civil-rights activist, Gilmore realizes that she can use her voice to highlight issues that are important to her. For 13 years, she has performed concerts in Belgium to raise money for the Damien Foundation - a nongovernmental organization that specializes in leprosy and tuberculosis control in Africa, Asia and South America. "At one time, we had a choir of 2,000 Belgians singing African-American gospel music, me, and an audience of 5,000 people. We sold it out every night, and you haven't lived until you've heard 2,000 Belgians singing 'Oh Happy Day,' she laughs.

Photo: MJ Smets/Lea Gilmore
Read More: http://www.npr.org/2012/12/26/167981961/baltimore-singers-big-voice-touches-siberia?ft=1&f=1039