Picture credit: Marie-Jeanne Smets
Lea Gilmore created Baltimore Community Sings when the city was grappling with the aftermath of the death of Freddy Gray in police custody. It was inspired by her belief that “Music is something that brings folks together. When we have a heart experience with someone else, that’s when our minds start to think differently about differences. We learn to respect and love each other experientially, more so than intellectually.”
The foundation of Baltimore Community Sings is African-American music, but it also draws on other musical traditions. It’s only one venture in Lea’s long career of bringing diverse people together through the power of music.
Lea showed unusual musical talent at an early age. She studied piano on a scholarship at Peabody when she was 12 and was awarded a scholarship to Lincoln University. After taking a break to start a family, she went to Morgan State University to study political science & economics. In school, her passion for social justice was so strong that Gilmore thought she didn’t need to perform anymore. But she soon realized, “I would die if I didn’t do music” and joined the choir. While at Morgan State two prominent musicologists, Dominic de Lerma and Eileen Southern, taught her how to combine her love of music with the pursuit of social justice.
After graduation, Lea centered her career in Europe. For more than 15 years, she led concerts throughout Belgium to benefit the Father Damien Foundation, a Catholic foundation supporting research and treatment for people with leprosy and tuberculosis.
Different cultural groups in Belgium have traditionally segregated themselves: French-speaking residents of Wallonia, Dutch-speaking residents of Flanders, French-speaking residents of Brussels. But they all loved the African-American music that Lea performed. Her fans began crossing boundaries to attend her concerts, mingling with people they had traditionally avoided. It was, she explains, “kind of a two-fer—you’re raising money to help combat TB and leprosy, but at the same time you’re bringing people together.”
Lea also performed in many countries outside of Belgium, including a stint as an artist in residence for the U.S. State Department in Paris. In Scotland, Lea and a long-time friend from Baltimore started Umoja Musica, a project drawing on African-American and Scottish cultures.
In an old European church, Lea once found herself performing for an audience, surrounded by beautiful wooden statues created with proceeds from the slave trade. She says, “It was a full circle moment. Humbling. But, singing to and with them was more powerful than anything I ever could’ve said.
“These are common experiences and humanity clicks in. When they experience the joy of a song, our hearts and our souls don’t have color. Music notes are a map to freedom.”