Carol Brice
Carol Brice (April 16, 1918 – February 15, 1985) was an American contralto. Born in Sedalia, North Carolina, she studied at Palmer Memorial Institute and later at Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama, where she received a Bachelor of Music in 1939. She continued her studies at the Juilliard School of Music from 1939 to 1943. She attracted considerable attention for her role in a 1939 production of The Hot Mikado at the New York World's Fair, where she worked with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.[1] Brice made her recital debut in 1943, that year becoming the first African-American to win the Walter Naumburg Award. Her concerts often featured the piano accompaniment of her brother, Jonathan Brice. In 1945 she taught briefly at Black Mountain College.[2]
She was the featured contralto on the February 5, 1946 recording of Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo conducted by Fritz Reiner with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. (Columbia Masterworks MM-633, 3 12" 78 RPM discs. Also LP ML-2006).
Her performances on Broadway included the role of Kakou in the original 1959 cast of Saratoga, the role of Maude in a 1960 revival of Finian's Rainbow, the role of Catherine Creek in the original 1971 musical production of The Grass Harp, and the role of Maria in a 1976 revival of Porgy & Bess. Her opera performances included roles in Clarence Cameron White's Ouanga and Marc Blitzstein's Regina.[1]
Brice began teaching at the University of Oklahoma at Norman in 1974.[3] She later founded the non-profit Cimarron Circuit Opera Company in Oklahoma with her husband, the baritone Thomas Carey. She supported lynching victim Isaiah Nixon's widow financially after Nixon was killed in 1948.[4] Brice died in Norman, Oklahoma of cancer, survived by her husband, brother, two children and six grandchildren.
References
<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Fortini, Amanda (2022) Why Are We Still Talking About Black Mountain College? New York Times
- ↑ African-American Registry Template:Webarchive
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
External links
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1918 births
- 1985 deaths
- 20th-century African-American women singers
- 20th-century American women opera singers
- African-American women opera singers
- American operatic contraltos
- People from Guilford County, North Carolina
- Singers from North Carolina
- Talladega College alumni
- Juilliard School alumni
- Grammy Award winners
- University of Oklahoma faculty
- Deaths from cancer in Oklahoma
- Black Mountain College faculty
- African-American women academics
- American women academics
- 20th-century African-American academics
- 20th-century American academics