By Tom Lady
“These are not just songs to sing. They’re songs to experience, songs to breathe out, songs to live through…”
Soprano Gertrude Bradley is sharing her thought process with me in putting together a set list for this year’s Black History Month Recital. Produced by African Americans for LA Opera (AALAO), a chapter of the Opera League, this year’s recital takes place Sunday, February 15 at the Ebell of Los Angeles on Wilshire Boulevard.
For Joel
Gertrude took extra care on this particular set list, as her entire performance will be dedicated to and in cherished memory of longtime AALAO leader, member, and veteran volunteer Joel Graham, who passed away in the autumn of 2025.
While this will be Gertrude’s third AALAO recital, it will be her first in over ten years, her last appearance being the Father’s Day 2013 recital at the private residence of AALAO co-founder Delores Kerr. What prompted her to come back after all this time?
The better question would be who: Joel Graham.
“Many times over the years, Joel would tell me he wanted me back for another AALAO recital.”
In coming back, Gertrude brings with her a wealth of both vocal and spiritual prowess she has built up and shone forth upon many audiences stretching back nearly fifty years to her formative years in Denver, Colorado.
This rich accumulation is augmented by her many years in the volunteer nonprofit space where Gertrude has been at the vanguard of discovering, uplifting, promoting, and advancing the next generation of vocal artists hiding in plain sight in underserved communities. In so doing, Gertrude has forged a path entirely of her own design, and which includes, like a companion by her side, a rock-solid Christian faith that, in turn, inspires the path she treads and the milestones on which she sets her sights and accomplishes along the way.
Like many such journeys, it began with an itch.
A Mile High Voice
“I did a lot of community theater in Colorado,” Gertrude says. “I also spent a lot of time studying vocal technique, how to use my voice, how to speak.”
These voice classes were taught by a man she affectionately refers to as Professor Bwana Todd, “bwana” being Swahili for “mister.”
“Bwana Todd taught us detailed intricacies of how voice is generated. He taught us how to project the voice, how to use our body in conjunction with our voice, how to incorporate dialects, how to detect tension and to use our voices with ease, all with the aim of being maximally effective with our theatrical stage roles.”
Looking back, Gertrude realizes she began to instinctively connect the speaking and the singing, for the purposes of executing a quality production of voice.
Indeed, the decision to study under Professor Bwana Todd would continue paying off over the years, especially when Gertrude eventually made the decision to boldly step into the world of opera.
Meantime, she continued finding performance opportunities to apply what she was learning. By the time she was in her early twenties, Gertrude had racked up a robust list of credits.
Until, she hit the proverbial ceiling and itched to go somewhere that would let her spread her wings even more, both artistically as well as spiritually.
“I began to feel that Colorado was a bit limited when it came to music opportunities, and performances beyond just community theater. I felt like a big fish in a small pond. That is why I came to Southern California. I thought I could do more here, and be more involved in theater as well as music, film, other cultural pursuits and opportunities that I felt I had already achieved in Colorado.”
A Sunny Learning Experience.\
The rub? She never needed a manager in Colorado because the next role or performance opportunity found its way to her, whether simply handed to her or otherwise communicated to her. It was not until she came to California she realized how simple she had it in Colorado in terms of finding opportunities.
Once settled in Los Angeles, it became obvious that the pathway to the arts was a road she had never been on. However she viewed it as eye opening and not disappointing.
She eventually found theatrical niches, such as the Christmas and Easter productions at the Christ Cathedral, formerly the Crystal Cathedral, in Garden Grove, Orange County.
She also found opportunities with L.A.’s Black music scene. Among her most notable gigs were the two years she spent on the road with the Whispers as a lead character in the gospel play “Thank God the Beat Goes On”.
“Most of my singing was in churches. As far back as Colorado, I recorded an album called Wings of My Savior that you can find on YouTube…I also performed in a two person play called Porches that ran for several weeks to sold out houses in a theater in Palos Verdes.
Reinvention in the Good Ol’ Summertime
In the 2000s, about twenty years after relocating to L.A., Gertrude decided to study opera and take voice lessons.
“This turned out to be so gratifying for me,” she recalls. “Many of the concepts and techniques that were shared with me made sense because it was the same as what I had already learned from Professor Bwana Todd in Colorado.
The lessons provided Gertrude the chance to learn arias and roles. “I learned the title role, Ciao-Ciao San in Madame Butterfly from beginning to end. It was a very exciting set of work at that time.”
Better yet, it was while taking these lessons, mastering one of the most celebrated soprano roles in the repertoire, when Gertrude came across the opportunity to audition for LA Opera and was hired for their production of Porgy and Bess. That very production marked her first foray into an opera.
“I was a chorus member [in that production], But the director, Annette Zambrano, gave us all a character to develop. I was a Christian widow with a daughter and grandchild. I had to flick away the ill-intentioned males who flocked around my daughter. I was also someone who had strong compassion for my neighbor, Serena, after her husband Robbins was killed.”
“My best memory [of that production] is that, for one matinee performance, three bus-loads of people from my church came to support me.” I was a chorister, but to them I was as significant as Bess.”
A Jubilee to the Opera League
Opera notwithstanding, most of Gertrude’s singing remained in churches. She took the opportunity to sing with the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, an L.A.-based choral ensemble. The group’s namesake and founder cultivated global attention for African-American Spirituals.
Gertrude eventually came into the radar of late, great Michael Melton, one of the leaders and pillars of Los Angeles County’s Black arts and culture scene, including and especially the opera scene. it was soon after his passing in the spring of 2019 that the Opera League’s AALAO chapter rechristened their annual October recital the Michael Melton Memorial Recital.
Hence, it was the invitation of Mr. Melton himself that Gertrude stepped into her first performance for the Opera League of Los Angeles. This particular performance fell on Father’s Day 2010 at the residence of Delores Kerr, one of the co-founders of AALAO, and her husband, Ben. The performance was a two-fold success: a photo of Gertrude’s performance was subsequently incorporated into the AALAO membership brochure, and the League and its AALAO leadership invited her back for the Father’s Day 2013 recital.
Getting GLAMed Up
Gertrude became active in the nonprofit space, especially with the National Association of Negro Musicians, Inc. (NANM), with goals not unlike those of Michael Melton: spotlighting, promoting, uplifting, and facilitating career paths for musically talented youth from underserved communities.
Within NANM, Gertrude’s primary involvement has been as Vice President of the Georgia Laster Association of Musicians, Inc, (GLAM). GLAM is one of four affiliate branches in the Western region of NANM, Gertrude also serves as Assistant Director of the western region alongside Soprano, Yolanda West, who serves as the Regional Director.
Joel Graham
As it happens, the former treasurer for GLAM was the late Joel Graham, in whose honor this month’s AALAO Black History recital is being produced. Joel had been GLAM’s treasurer for fifteen years before his passing last fall. So, Joel was known by Gertrude as a valuable constituent of both organizations.
While the February 15 recital will be her third recital with the Opera League and its African-American chapter, AALAO, it will be Gertrude’s first during Black History Month. Does that impact the type of program she would put together?
“Absolutely,” she said without hesitation. “And so does the fact that this music will be dedicated to my friend Joel Graham. When I said before that he did not stop asking me to come back to do a recital for AALAO, it obviously became more than that. It is humbling for me that it meant so much to him that he wanted me to sing as a memorial to him after his passing so, I’m keeping that at the very base of my inspiration for this recital. I’m putting together what I hope is an impactful program of pieces that will resonate strongly from my heart in a personal way.
“And with this being Black History Month, I certainly want to include Spirituals. I also want to pull some of my past into my presentation with a piece from The Wiz. I performed in a production of The Wiz as Glinda the Good Witch. Most likely I’ll sing “Home” from that show.
“All of these components have been my musical makeup,” she explains. “I’ve sung musical theater, gospel, spirituals, madrigal pieces, choral pieces, as well as opera. All of these attributes have come into play to establish the quality of musician into which I’ve evolved over the years.
When I pointed out that she must have had such drive to have done so much, she credits a significant part of it to her mother. “When I was a child, my mother advised me to “be the best”. Those few words have remained in my heart, spirit, and mind ever since. She didn’t ask me to emulate anyone or to attain what someone else aspired to do or be. Only to be the best at what I did.”
Where she has been around the globe.
Of course, all of that is in addition to Gertrude’s also being a classically trained singer, opening up a sort of parallel career path that has seen her grace the stages of Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Madison Square Garden, Germany’s Philharmonia, the Hollywood Bowl, Disney Hall…
“I have a lot of gratitude. My voice has been heard in so many countries of the world, My music has been sought after and utilized on some marvelous stages. It’s great to look back over the years and realize that I have accomplished some remarkable things.”
“I love to read; I love to learn. Learning is something that will never, ever go away from my life. I enjoy languages. I can speak conversational Spanish and can conduct myself in French. I know a little bit of German, and Italian, of course, because of the arias I’ve sung over the years. I even studied classical Hebrew for four years.
“Today I’m a missionary, to Namibia, South Africa, Congo, Philippines, Egypt, as well as Nigeria. Now I’m learning Igbo, which is one of the languages spoken in Nigeria. I have traveled to Nigeria every year for the past eight years. When I go again my goal is to converse with the natives in that language.
Beaming, Gertrude concludes, “The tank is not yet empty. I have a lot left to do.”