Barbara McAlister (born 1942) is a mezzo-soprano Native American opera singer from Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Background
Barbara McAlister was born Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1942. She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, a descendant of Old Tassel, and half German/Cherokee through her mother. She aspired to be a country-western singer in her youth, but learned to love opera from her parents.
For her dedication to promoting the Cherokee language, she was awarded the Cherokee Medal of Honor from the Cherokee Honor Society.
Musical career
She won the Loren Zachary Competition in Los Angeles, which launched her career. She has since performed in the opera houses of Passau, Koblenz, Bremerhaven, and most notably Flensburg, where she was engaged for a decade. She has given solo performances at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and has performed with companies throughout Europe and the United States.
Visual arts
McAlister also paints in the Bacone style of flat-style Native painting from Prairie, Plains, and Eastern tribes. She has exhibited her paintings at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum and Jacobson House Native Arts Center in Oklahoma, the Wharton Art Gallery in Philadelphia, and Bullock's in Los Angeles.
References
- ^ Conley, Robert J. A Cherokee encyclopedia. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007: 147–148. (retrieved through Google Books, 7 April 2009) ISBN 978-0-8263-3951-5.
- Duvall, Deborah L. Tahlequah and the Cherokee Nation. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2000: 112. ISBN 0-7385-0782-2.
- ^ Resume. Barbara McAlister. (retrieved 7 April 2009)
- Williams, John L. "Bacone College." Archived April 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma History Center's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. (retrieved 6 Nov 2009)
External links
Categories:- American operatic mezzo-sopranos
- Native American singers
- Native American painters
- Painters from Oklahoma
- Singers from Oklahoma
- People from Muskogee, Oklahoma
- Cherokee Nation musicians
- 1941 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American painters
- 20th-century Native American artists
- 21st-century Native American artists
- 20th-century Native American women
- 21st-century Native American women
- Cherokee Nation women