Black Leadership Arts Collective
is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to supporting and empowering Black vocal artists through leadership, mentorship, education, and by providing scholarship and performance opportunities.
BLAC provides access to leading industry professionals, while fostering community in our shared creative and artistic endeavors.
BLAC is comprised of BIack classical vocal artists and musicians performing and teaching around the world today. All of BLAC's founding Board Members share the singular common goal to uplift, empower and create mentorship, scholarship and performance opportunities for others in their community so that the greater musical arts community may benefit from their enormous gifts and talents.
Kenneth Overton
Mentorship
The Black Leadership Arts Collective Mentorship Program empowers singers as they navigate the critical transition between structured Emerging Artist Programs and the first years of independent professional life. Recognizing the unique challenges of this stage, ranging from career sustainability and artistic identity to financial and mental well-being, BLAC provides a holistic framework of mentorship, resources, and community to help artists build thriving, purpose-driven careers.
This program is open to artists in that all-important transitional time before embarking upon a full-time professional career, post-masters or post-Emerging Artist Program stage. Materials are accepted annually online.
Our 2025 mentees have gone on to share their talents onstage everywhere from The Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand opera to The Santa Fe Opera and Carnegie Hall, and they are prize winners in competitions including the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s Corbett Scholarship Competition, and the George Shirley Vocal Competition.
"My time with BLAC was truly life-changing. Being surrounded by individuals who wholeheartedly use their gifts to support aspiring artists was beyond fulfilling. The level of representation, support, and knowledge poured into me is something I will always cherish. I am leaving with greater confidence and curiosity in my craft, and I look forward to giving back to future generations."
AUDRIANNA HUGHES, 2025 MENTEE
Lauryn Davis
Lauryn Davis
Amani
Cole-Felder
Audrianna Hughes
Kathiana Dargenson
BLAC in the Community
Black Leadership Arts Collective highlights the incredible talents and achievements of Black artists in the classical music landscape, both past and present. The organization is devoted to enriching communities with the arts and has held events and facilitated projects ranging from a recital with Lyric Opera of Chicago celebrating Chicago's Black voices to the unveiling of a Mary Cardwell Dawson mural as part of her induction into to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. In addition to its robust Mentorship Program, BLAC also holds regular masterclasses in support of the next generation of Black singers and artists.
