Louise Toppin

Louise Toppin has received critical acclaim for her operatic, orchestral, oratorio, and recital performances world-wide. Represented by Joanne Rile Artist Management, she toured in “Gershwin on Broadway” with pianist Leon Bates and tenor Bill Brown. She has recorded more than 18 CDs of primarily American music including Songs of Illumination, (Centaur Records), and on Albany Records Ah love, but a day, He’ll Bring it to Pass, and La Saison des fleurs. She has published 12 collections of music by African American composers with Classical Vocal Reprints including An Anthology of African and African Diaspora Songs, and Rediscovering Margaret Bonds. 

Recent performances include the world premiere of Julia Perry’s Frammenti dalla lettere with the Akron Symphony Orchestra, and performance with Julia Bullock and the New World Symphony. She co-curated and sang a festival of Black Music in Hamburg, Germany with Thomas Hampson, Larry Brownlee, Leah Hawkins, and Justin Austin, sang a recital on Harry Burleigh for Oxford Lieder Festival (England), performance at the U.S. Capitol for Congress and President Obama, a performance with Camerata Romeu (Cuba) and concert for the opening of the Smith sonian’s African American Heritage Museum. 

She has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered (Margaret Bonds); co-hosted the Minnesota Orchestra “Listening Project” concerts and hosted her show: Conversations in African American music, exploring the stories of many African American composers and cultural institutions. She has appeared on many college campuses including Harvard, Yale, Tufts, Duke Universities, and the Cherubino Conservatory in Florence, Italy. Co-founder and director of the George Shirley Vocal Competition that focuses on repertoire by African American art song, and Videmus (a non-profit organization that promotes the concert repertoire of African American and women composers). She founded the Africandiasporamusicproject.org research tool to locate the repertoire of composers of the African Diaspora from the 1600s to the present. 

Previously, Dr. Toppin was the Distinguished University Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is currently University Distinguished Professor of Diversity and Social Transformation and Professor of Music (Voice), at The University of Michigan.