(soft upbeat music) - I am here with Professor George Shirley, the first African American member of the Army Chorus, the first African American to teach music in Detroit public high schools, the first African American male tenor to sing leading roles with the Metropolitan Opera, and the list goes on.

Let's rewind time just a little bit.

Professor Shirley, you really didn't have plans to be an opera singer.

You are about to get married and teach music in Detroit public schools.

And then what happened?

- Well, the army happened, the draft happened.

My life was set, my dreams were fulfilled.

And we were planning on getting married in August of 1956.

We got a letter from Uncle Sam in about March or April, 1956 saying basically, you're going to be married to me.

In June, the word went out that the army was going to create a singing organization to be attached to the United States Army Band in Washington DC.

The band had been formed in 1934 or '35, and it had never had a Black member.

So I decided to go in as a bandsman.

So I went into the army playing euphonium.

- How did you really matriculate into the world of opera?

- So along with two other members of the band who were not that happy with that prospect, both of them were white, we decided to take a leave of absence and go to Washington and audition for the chorus.

Conductor of the Chorus, a fellow named Samuel LaBoda, he was a Captain, he was second in command of the Army band.

And my two colleagues sang their auditions.

And LaBoda, who was very direct, a really incredible man, he said, well, thank you very much for coming.

We won't be able to use you.

And I thought, oh.

My turn came and I sang.

And he said, can you wait a few minutes after I finished?

I said, yes sir, and he disappeared into the command room.

A few minutes became at least a half hour.

And I'm sitting there thinking it's the same old stuff.

Same (Professor Shirley groans).

So he finally came out and he said, well, we decided that we would like to have you join us if it's what you really want.

I found out years later that Sam LaBoda had to go all the way to the Pentagon to get me in.

That was America.

- Tell us about the value of equality, music education at the elementary level on up through high school.

- I didn't, I mean, I'd been singing ever since I was five years old with my parents in church in Indianapolis.

And then we came here and encountered my, one of the greatest systems of public school music education in the country in Detroit.

And for me it's a primal force in educating people.

It doesn't mean that someone who has profited by studying music is going to become a necessarily a professional musician.

But it means that the brain has been trained in certain ways that can be used, activated in professions that have nothing to do, per se, with music.

There are people who are CEOs of companies who are excellent musicians.

I mean, Einstein was a musician.

I mean, it's, so you're taking away something that is essential, really essential in helping to grow the brain.

- You've taught at universities, you're teaching, you're a distinguished professor at the University of Michigan, but you also have a vocal competition that started about 11 years ago.

- I have a former student, Louise Topin.

She and I came up with this idea of a vocal competition focused on the art songs and the classical compositions of African American composers.

It has grown over the years to include university students, still has high school level and it has become international.

The University of Michigan School of Music Theater and Dance is now going to house this competition and it's a dream come true.

The music, the so-called classical music of Black composers has not really been made as accessible and has not been taught to the degree that it should be.

And that's being changed now at Michigan, at the School of Music.

And it's open to all ethnicities 'cause music belongs to everyone.

I don't care what you look like.

If I can sing Italian to Italians or French to the French or German to the Germans or anything else, then everybody has a right to sing the works of African American composers.

I don't take credit for having been given the gift of song.

I had nothing to do with that.

I don't remember asking the intelligence that created me, can I be a singer?

Can I be an opera singer?

Can I be a teacher?

I don't have, I was given the gift and I was also given the work ethic to develop the gift.

(Professor Shirley singing in a foreign language) (operatic music fading) - [Narrator] And you can see George Shirley perform at the Musical Voices of Alpha Event on Sunday,