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The KPAC Blog features classical music news and analysis from all our classical hosts. From Ron Moore's detailed look at Wagner's masterpiece "Parsifal," to an inside look at the Latin Grammys from James Baker, the KPAC Blog features writings about some of the music played on air as well as other interviews and essays about classical music.

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SXSW
12:06 pm
Wed March 17, 2010

Opera Singer Who Faced Discrimination at UT-Austin in 1957 Profiled in Documentary, "When I Rise"

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Credit Nathan Cone
L to R: Rochelle Small, a student of Ms. Conrad’s, Barbara Smith Conrad, Michelle Thomas of AT&T. AT&T helped finance the production of "When I Rise."
Credit Nathan Cone
L: Director, Mat Hames. R: Executive Producer, Dr. Don Carleton
Credit Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
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In 1957, Barbara Smith Conrad was studying music at the University of Texas in Austin. She was cast as Dido in a student production of Henry Purcell’s opera "Dido and Aeneas." 

Two weeks before the curtain, Conrad learned that she would not be singing the role of Dido, because a state congressman had objected to an African-American woman being cast opposite a white leading man in a romantic role.  

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