Classically Black: Leontyne Price

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Voice of the Millennium
Roger Cooper profiles his longtime favorite

WILL-FM’s Roger Cooper says the voice of Leontyne Price "not only soared into the heavens and caught the attention of the angels, but it also reached down into the ghetto and found me."

Roger’s ninth Classically Black program, airing on WILL-FM at 4 pm Saturday, February 3, will profile the brilliant opera star who has long been his favorite. When Roger was first introduced to Price’s voice in a music appreciation course, he had never heard a black person sing opera. Her inspiration kept him going at the University of Evansville, where he was one of only two African-American students in the music program. "For the first time I realized that I could do anything I wanted to in music," says Roger, who has completed his course work for a doctorate in music at the U of I. "I had thought I would go into teaching, but she opened up the entire world of possibilities to me."

The one-hour program on Price, showcases her extraordinary voice, and includes interviews with her former husband William Warfield and soprano Martina Arroyo. It describes Price’s childhood in Mississippi, her Metropolitan Opera debut that ended with an unprecedented 42-minute Grand Ovation, her rapid ascent in the opera world, and her farewell bow in Aida in 1985. The program will be repeated on WILL-FM after the Metropolitan Opera on February 17.

Roger, whose living room wall is covered with a huge poster from Price’s last performance at the Krannert Center, said every time he hears her voice, he thinks of a soda his mother used to drink. "It was called Cherry Blossom soda and it was very sweet and bubbly," he says. "When I hear her quick vibrato, I always get that image in my head."

Roger is unabashed in his admiration of Price, who will turn 74 February 10. "Her voice is simply the most ravishing sound there is," he says. Cooper had a chance to meet Price through William Warfield on her visits to Champaign-Urbana. He also got to serve her lunch. "I was the pastry chef at the old Century 21 restaurant. She was staying in the hotel and ordered room service," says Roger. "I asked if I could deliver it and I did. It was one of the thrills in my life."

Although he has made eight previous Classically Black programs, Roger has never produced a program about Leontyne Price until now. "She’s such a towering figure to me, it’s hard to know what to say without gushing," he says. Tune in and hear Roger’s moving tribute to the woman whose voice he says is so perfect, it is "The Voice of the Millennium."

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