Barbara McAlister (opera singer)

Last updated March 13, 2019

Barbara McAlister (born 1942) is an internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Native American opera singer from Muskogee, Oklahoma.

A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (, ; Italian: [ˈmɛddzo soˈpraːno] meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A₃–A₅ in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C₄; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F₃, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C₆, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano.

Muskogee, Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, United States

Muskogee is a city in and the county seat of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately 48 miles southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 39,223 as of the 2010 census, a 2.4 percent increase from 38,310 at the 2000 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in Oklahoma.

Background

Barbara McAlister was born Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1942.^[1] 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.^[1]

The Cherokee Nation, also known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century and includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated from the Southeast due to increasing pressure to Indian Territory and Cherokee who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen and Natchez Nation. Over 299,862 people are enrolled in the Cherokee Nation, with 189,228 living within the state of Oklahoma. According to Larry Echo Hawk, former head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the current Cherokee Nation is not the historical Cherokee tribe but instead a "successor in interest".

Old Tassel, , was "First Beloved Man" of the Overhill Cherokee after 1783. He continuously tried to keep the Cherokee people of the Overhill region out of the Cherokee–American wars being fought at the time between the American frontiersmen and the Chickamauga warriors under Dragging Canoe. He was murdered under a flag of truce while defending his tribe from white settlers.

For her dedication to promoting the Cherokee language, she was awarded the Cherokee Medal of Honor from the Cherokee Honor Society.^[2]

Musical career

She won the Loren Zachary Competition in Los Angeles, California, which launched her career.^[3] 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 Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Weil Recital Hall, and has performed with companies throughout Europe and the United States.^[3]

Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt because the Danube is joined there by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north.

Koblenz, spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city situated on both banks of the Rhine where it is joined by the Moselle.

Bremerhaven is a city at the seaport of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a state of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Visual arts

Barbara also paints in the Bacone style of flat-style Native painting from Prairie, Plains, and Eastern tribes.^[4] 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.^[3]

The Five Civilized Tribes Museum is a museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma that houses the art, history and culture of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole tribes. Housed in the historic Union Indian Agency building, the museum was opened in 1966.

Related Research Articles

Muskogee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 70,990. The county seat is Muskogee. The county and city were named for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The official spelling of the name was changed to Muskogee by the post office in 1900.

Wilma Mankiller Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was an activist, social worker, community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County, Oklahoma, until the age of 11, when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Native Americans. After high school, she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s, Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s, she was employed as a social worker, focusing mainly on children's issues.

Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private four-year liberal arts college in Muskogee, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by Almon C. Bacone, Bacone College is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma. The college has strong historic ties to various tribal nations, including the Cherokee Nation and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and also to the American Baptist Churches USA.

Acee Blue Eagle, also named Alex C. McIntosh, Chebon Ahbulah, and Lumhee Holot-Tee, was a Muscogee Creek-Pawnee-Wichita artist, educator, dancer, and Native American flute player.

hJoan Hill, also known as Che-se-quah, is a Muscogee Creek artist of Cherokee ancestry. She is one of the most awarded women artists in the Native American art world.

W. Richard West Jr. Founding Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Southern Cheyenne peace chief

Walter Richard "Rick" West Jr. is the president and CEO of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. He was the founding director of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, retiring from the position in 2007. He is also a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in Oklahoma and a Peace Chief of the Southern Cheyenne. His professional life has been devoted to serving the American Indian community on cultural, artistic, educational, legal and governmental issues.

The Five Moons are five Native American ballerinas from the U.S. state of Oklahoma who achieved international prominence during the 20th century. They are Yvonne Chouteau, Rosella Hightower, Moscelyne Larkin, and sisters Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief. Five Moons (2007) is the name of a bronze sculpture installation in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that portrays the five ballerinas.

Martha Berry is a Cherokee beadwork artist, who has been highly influential in reviving traditional Cherokee and Southeastern beadwork, particularly techniques from the pre-Removal period. She has been recognized as a Cherokee National Treasure. Her work is shown in museums around the United States.

The Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame, located in Muskogee, Oklahoma, honors Oklahoma musicians for their lifetime achievements in music. The induction ceremony and concert are held each year in Muskogee. Since its establishment in 1997, the Hall of Fame has inducted more than 37 individuals or groups, produced more than 7 concerts, and renovated in part the facility that will educate Oklahomans for generations about those innovators and industry icons from Oklahoma.

Willard Stone was an American artist best known for his wood sculptures carved in a flowing Art Deco style

Cecil Dick, or Degadoga (1915–1992) was a well-known Cherokee artist often referred to as "the Father of Cherokee Traditional Art". Cecil, born near Rose Prairie, Oklahoma, was one of the pioneers of 20th-century, flat-style painting among Eastern Woodland tribes in Oklahoma. He was enrolled in the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.

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The Bacone style or Bacone school of painting, drawing, and printmaking is a Native American Flatstyle art movement, primarily from the mid-20th century in Eastern Oklahoma. This art movement bridges historical, tribally-specific pictorial painting and carving practices towards an intertribal Modernist style of easel painting.

Sharon Irla is an award-winning, Cherokee artist, enrolled in the Cherokee Nation. A self-taught artist, Irla began entering competitive art shows in 2003. Her collective body of works span the fields of painting, murals, graphics, photography, and custom picture frames with Southeastern Woodlands / Mississippian motifs. The majority of her awarded works are oil-on-canvas portraits of Cherokee women in both contemporary and historical settings.

Virginia Alice Stroud is a Cherokee-Muscogee Creek painter from Oklahoma. She is an enrolled member of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians.

Ruthe Blalock Jones is a Delaware-Shawnee-Peoria painter and printmaker from Oklahoma.

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David Emmett Williams was a Native American painter of Kiowa-Tonkawa/Kiowa-Apache heritage from Oklahoma. He studied with Dick West at Bacone College and won numerous national awards for his paintings. He painted in the flat-style painting technique that was taught at Bacone from the 1940s-1960s.

References

1 2 Conley, Robert J. A Cherokee encyclopedia. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007: 147-8. (retrieved through Google Books, 7 April 2009) ISBN 978-0-8263-3951-5.
↑ Duvall, Deborah L. Tahlequah and the Cherokee Nation. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000: 112. ISBN 0-7385-0782-2.
1 2 3 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

Barbara McAlister: Dramatic Mezzo

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[rjc-1] 1 2 Conley, Robert J. A Cherokee encyclopedia. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007: 147-8. (retrieved through Google Books, 7 April 2009) ISBN 978-0-8263-3951-5.

[dd-2] Duvall, Deborah L. Tahlequah and the Cherokee Nation. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2000: 112. ISBN 0-7385-0782-2.

[bmac-3] 1 2 3 Resume. Barbara McAlister. (retrieved 7 April 2009)

[4] 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)