Lea Gilmore Biography

Lea Gilmore on tour in Belgium

Photo by Marie-Jeanne Smets

Lea Gilmore is a blues, gospel and jazz singing civic activist. a recipient of the Blues Foundation’s W. C. Handy Award: Keeping the Blues Alive and was named as one of 25 “Women Shaping the World” by Essence Magazine. She was featured in the October 2005 Leadership' issue.

Over the past eight years, Gilmore has lent her voice to support the cause of ridding third world countries in Africa of leprosy and TB by headlining Gospel concerts in Europe, sponsored by the Damien Foundation, a Belgium-based nonprofit, appearing before 300,000 in concerts throughout Belgium alone. A former deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and Program Director for the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers, Gilmore has testified before local, state and federal commissions on issues ranging from immigration laws to the civil rights and liberties of women of color.

Appointed by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, she currently serves as a member of the Maryland Advisory Board to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. A Lea Gilmore Miniresidency is jammed pack with emotional musical highlights and a brilliant presentation of information.

A graduate of Morgan State University with a degree in political science and a member of the Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society for the Social Sciences, Gilmore also sang in the school's much-heralded choir, under the direction of the late Dr. Nathan Carter. She is a classically trained pianist and singer, and award-winning Blues, gospel and jazz singer who has appeared in over 45 musical and dramatic theater productions.

Lea was invited (Feb and March 2007) by the US Embassy of France and the US State Department to tour France presenting lectures and concerts focusing on the history of African-American music and human rights. Gilmore is a highly sought after lecturer who frequently speaks on the history of African American music; civil and human rights; and women’s rights, in addition to their historical and contemporary roles in blues and gospel music. She was appointed the 2008 Artists in Residence for Black History Month for the International School of Switzerland (TASIS); the 2006 Artist and Scholar in Residence for the International School of Brussels; ,as well as the 2005 Women and the Blues Scholar at the University of Mississippi.

Gilmore is a former board member and still active participant of Common Ground on the Hill, an arts and culture diversity camp held at McDaniel College in Carroll County, Maryland, and The Blues Foundation.

Lea Gilmore is married to David Gilmore. David and Lea are the proud parents of two sons, Jonathan and Gabriel. They live in Maryland.

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