Dave's Dream Mentor Challenge

  photo of Chaz'em Williams Ali with Simon Estes  
 

 

Chaz'men Williams-Ali is currently a senior at the University of Iowa where he is getting his Bachelor's degree in vocal performance.  Simon Estes is an operatic bass-baritone who has had a major international opera career since the 1960s.  He has sung at most of the world's major opera houses as well as in front of presidents, popes and internationally renowned figures and celebrities including Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Boris Yeltsin, Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.  He was notably part of the first generation of black opera singers to achieve wide success, and is viewed as part of an instrumental group of performers who helped break down the barriers of racial prejudice in the opera world.

Watch Chaz'men Williams-Ali interviews his mentor, opera singer Simon Estes.