♪ But that was 15 years ago ♪
♪ He took the socks 'cause our baby's feet were cold ♪
♪ Didn't know that the sins of my past ♪
♪ Would come back tenfold ♪
♪ Life on parole ♪
♪ Three, how could you call this a crime ♪
♪ Two, they saying one more time ♪
♪ They'll give me life ♪
♪ Strike three, two, one ♪
♪ Oh, we're running out of time ♪
(audience applauds)
- Welcome back to our Rad Human Hour, everybody.
I'm here with Leon and Karen, give it up.
(Kelly applauds) (audience cheers)
So what you just heard was amazing and it is the music
of Tonality, a choir group that combines beautiful voices
with real stories and issues of social justice
and seriously one of the most unique and powerful choirs
in America and they're so gifted, all those runs.
Here to tell us all about it
is the founding Artistic Director of Tonality,
Dr. Alexander Lloyd Blake.
Give it up for him, guys.
(audience applauds) (audience cheers)
It's such a cool concept.
Give us an overview of Tonality and what it's about.
- Sure, Tonality is a 24-voice choir and we really started
because we didn't see a lot of representation
in terms of ethnic diversity in classical music,
and evolved the mission to really do more
than just be diverse but really talk about stories.
Stories that we are hearing in the news right now
which is pretty heavy, stories of criminal justice,
immigration, mental health, LGBTQ issues,
but we bring our stories to the music.
And as you know as an artist to explain experiences
through song brings a new emotion.
And I think it brings people closer to issues
that we really should be talking about.
- Yeah, it's a different level of depth.
It's a different depth I feel like.
Yeah, 'cause it's interesting, I'm listening to the lyrics.
I was obviously I'm listening to all the runs too
'cause they're incredible.
But also the lyrics,
you wouldn't find those lyrics generally in a song
and it's so moving and it makes you listen more.
It's very well done.
But what kinds of personal stories does the music capture?
- Sure, so stories of the people in the group.
I mean, I'll tell you my own story about growing up
in a gospel background in North Carolina,
definitely having my own experiences
with police and racial issues,
growing up as a closet gay male
in a conservative religious space,
but then we hear stories of the singers.
The singers are so brave and vulnerable about talking
about their own experiences and so people have told stories
about gun violence.
We had a concert about gun violence and this fell six days
after the Las Vegas tragedy
and one of our singers lost a friend in that shooting.
And so we started a concert with them telling that story.
And so we've had stories of sexual assault, mental health,
LGBTQ issues and again, it just gives us an opportunity
to really reflect the stories of America in our choir
because they are in our group as well.
- It's an amazing thing too
'cause when someone voices their story, it's so hard to do
but it empowers so many others to be like,
okay, if they can do it, I can do it too.
It's a very hard thing,
especially if you're not an extrovert naturally.
Well, we have a member of Tonality in our audience.
Say hi to David.
So David, you have a powerful story
you express through music, right?
- Yes, my parents are immigrants
that fled the Salvadoran civil war in the '80s.
And so you can imagine the traumatic experience that can be
moving here and not knowing the language,
not having family members here and even for me
being an American born here in California,
there are moments that people have told me
you don't belong here just for being latino.
So being in this group, we have a concert on immigration
and refugees and we have a piece called American Dreamers
that I get to really connect to and that also allows
for other audience members with similar experiences
to have their voices heard through song
and for other audience members that maybe have not
to have some sort of empathy as well.
- Wow, what an incredible story your family has.
I can't imagine, like you said,
oh, you can imagine, I can't.
I can't imagine all the sudden just having to live
in a country I don't know how to speak their language.
That's so hard and to make it work.
And what an amazing thing they've done for you
and changed your life and given you such opportunity.
Way to go, parents.
Just saying, yeah.
(audience applauds)
Well, Alex, your group has received a lot of attention
since the pandemic, right?
- Yes, we were very fortunate past year.
We just came out with an album called, America Will Be,
which that song that was presented was on.
And we also were able to be featured
on the score for Space Jam.
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh, that's so cool!
With LeBron, that's amazing.
- Yeah, Chris Bowers, is an amazing composer
who has involved in a lot of projects,
but we were able to talk about our aligned mission
about representation and possibility.
And so he thought it was great to bring us all on
to show that and just another opportunity
of what it looks like to be seen and validated
for all of who you are.
- Yeah, and it's so important
in all these different industries,
in tech, in music, in arts, everything.
And I think it's really cool that you all are doing it.
Even though it's in a different field,
it's still the same thing, like you were saying.
Well, we reached out to the Guitar Center Music Foundation
who loves the work that you're doing to unite people
with music and they want to help you continue,
so they're donating $5,000 to Tonality.
(audience applauds) (audience cheers)