Carnegie Hall Dream Comes True for Medgar Evers\'s Widow

Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of the slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, has long shared the dream of many an aspiring musician: playing Carnegie Hall. Now, at the age of 79, Ms. Evers-Williams will get that chance, thanks to the persuasive power of the pop orchestra Pink Martini.

The band, with its savvy and somewhat campy mix of original music, classic songs and international music, has asked Ms. Evers-Williams to join them on stage when Pink Martini plays there on Dec. 14 and 15. Ms. Evers-Williams, who studied classical piano at Alcorn State University before dropping out to marry Evers, is ecstatic at the opportunity.

“It was the dream of my grandmother and then it became my dream,” Ms. Evers-Williams said in a telephone interview. “'Baby, I want you to play at Carnegie Hall when you grow up,' she would say to me.”

Thomas M. Lauder dale, the founder of Pink Martini, came up with the idea earlier this year when he heard her speak at a TEDx event in Bend, Ore. (The evening's theme: “Bending Rules.”)

“When I heard her talk about this dream from her youth, I knew I had to make it happen,” Mr. Lauderdale said by phone from San Francisco where he was preparing for a concert. “We got our start in politics, in civil rights.”

Her involvement in the concerts, he added, will help spread the word of the fledgling Medgar and Myrlie Evers-Williams Institute. (The plan is to focus on scholarship and conferences on civic engagement and social justice.)

“On a certain level, these will be the most important performances the band will ever do,” he said. “To help her write not just a new chapter in her life, but to help raise awareness and hopefully set the institute on the path to a permanent home is such a honor.”

Ms. Evers-Williams, who is a distinguished scholar-in-residence at Alcorn State, said that she was at first resistant at Mr. Lauderdale's entreaties. “He said that when they play Carnegie Hall again, I would have to join them,” she said. “I said, no. no. no. He said, yes, yes, yes.

“Thomas Lauderdale is a very persistent man.”

Just what Ms. Evers-Williams will do on stage, beyond talking about the institute, is still being worked out. She's decided against playing piano - “Time has not been kind to my fingers, which are now more than a little arthritic” - but playing the role of a torch singer perched on top of a baby grand piano entices.

“I never fully let go of the dream of me in a red dress,” she said.