Susan Powell (Miss America)

Last updated

Susan Powell
Susan Powell in brown fur, cropped.jpg
Powell in 1981
Born (1959-03-24) March 24, 1959 (age 64)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Oklahoma City University
Occupations
  • Opera singer (coloratura soprano)
  • television personality
Years active1980present
TitleMiss Oklahoma City 1980
Miss Oklahoma 1980
Miss America 1981
Predecessor Cheryl Prewitt
Successor Elizabeth Gracen

Susan Carol Powell (born March 24, 1959) is an American opera singer. A native of Elk City, Oklahoma, Powell began her career as a successful beauty pageant contestant, winning the Miss Oklahoma pageant in 1980 and proceeded to the Miss America crown for the year 1981. A coloratura soprano, she has performed in musical theater and on opera stages around the world. In 1993, Powell embarked on a new television career, becoming the co-host of Discovery Channel's Home Matters home and garden program in 1993.

Contents

Biography

Powell was born and raised in Elk City, Oklahoma, [1] an 11,000 resident town driven by farming, ranching and oil production. Early on, Powell discovered a talent for singing and with the encouragement of her family, pursued it. As a child she sang in local venues, at church functions, and solo singing competitions. [2]

She attended Oklahoma City University, where she studied vocal music under Florence Birdwell and performed in summer stock at the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma.

After first being crowned Miss Oklahoma, Powell won the 1981 national competition, being named Miss America in September 1980 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

After her one-year reign, Powell embarked on a singing career, debuting with Seattle Opera in the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus . Calling her performance the "major surprise of the evening," a reviewer from Opera Canada praised "her sparkling stage personality" and pronounced her technique as "fully up to Adele's coloratura requirements." [3] Powell's opera career took her to the New York City Opera to the New Japan Philharmonic. She has sung as a soloist for John Williams and the Boston Pops. [1]

In 1993, Powell introduced the television series Home Matters on the Discovery Channel , which she hosted for nine seasons. Powell continues to tour and lecture, assisting in local preliminary Miss America contests and being one of the judges for the Miss America pageant in 2007. In 2002, Powell was recognized by the Oklahoma Hall of Fame as an Ambassador of Good Will from the state for the second time, the first such recognition occurring in 1981.

Powell performed on the television program Don't Forget the Lyrics in the episode of December 12, 2008, appearing along with Heather French Henry (Miss America 2000) and Kirsten Haglund (Miss America 2008).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverly Sills</span> American operatic soprano and impresario (1929–2007)

Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberta Peters</span> American opera singer

Roberta Peters was an American coloratura soprano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Estelle Liebling</span> American soprano, composer, arranger, music editor, and celebrated voice teacher and vocal coach

Estelle Liebling was an American soprano, composer, arranger, music editor, and celebrated voice teacher and vocal coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzette Charles</span> Singer, Miss America

Suzette Charles is an American singer, entertainer, and actress. She was Miss New Jersey in 1983, and served as Miss America 1984 for seven weeks after Vanessa L. Williams resigned from the position that July.

The Miss Oklahoma competition selects a winner to compete on behalf of Oklahoma in the Miss America pageant. Miss Oklahoma has won the Miss America crown on five occasions. Also, in the years when city representatives were common, Norma Smallwood won, competing as Miss Tulsa, giving the state of Oklahoma a total of six crowns. Oklahoma is also one of three states to win back to back Miss America titles.

The Miss South Carolina competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of South Carolina in the Miss America pageant. The pageant was first held in Myrtle Beach and moved to Greenville starting in 1958 and remained in that city until the 1990s. Spartanburg hosted the pageant in a few different venues until new leadership took over the organization and moved the pageant to Columbia, SC in 2011. The pageant was televised since the 1960s until the 1998 pageant. Televising was resumed with the 2000 pageant through 2006. The pageant returned to television in 2014.

Gianna Rolandi was an American soprano. She was based at the New York City Opera (NYCO) and enjoyed a 20-year national and international career in coloratura soprano roles. She retired from performing in 1994 and served as director of and principal instructor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago's opera studio until 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss America 2007</span> 80th edition of the Miss America competition

Miss America 2007, the 80th Miss America pageant, was held on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada on Monday, January 29, 2007, making it the first time that the pageant was held on a weekday, rather than the traditional Saturday since 1927's contest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanda L. Bass School of Music</span>

The Wanda L Bass School of Music is a College at Oklahoma City University. It offers several degrees including; a BM, MM, and a BA in several areas of Music. The Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University is an All-Steinway School, the nation’s first Conn-Selmer School, a member of the National Alliance for Music Theatre, and winner of ASCAP’s national orchestral award for adventurous programming of contemporary music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marta Eggerth</span> Austrian-Hungarian-born American actress

Marta Eggerth was a Hungarian actress and singer from "The Silver Age of Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Franz Lehár, Fritz Kreisler, Robert Stolz, Oscar Straus, and Paul Abraham, composed works especially for her.

Virginia MacWatters was an American coloratura soprano and university professor.

Florence Gillam Birdwell, sometimes referred to as Flo Birdwell, was an American educator, musician, and singer. She taught musical theater and opera singing for more than six decades. She served as a professor of voice at the Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University from 1946 to 2013, and afterwards periodically teaching master classes as a professor emerita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Jeske</span> American singer

Susan Jeske is the current CEO of Ms. America Pageant. In 1997 she was the first winner of Ms. America, a lesser known beauty peagant, which she purchased afterwards, holding a remodeled version of it since 2002. She has been involved in pageantry since 1983 as a competitor, judge, and pageant director at over 200 local, state, national and international pageant competitions. In 2007, Jeske was honored with the Lifetime Presidential Award from the President of the United States, George W. Bush for her lifetime contributions to charity and volunteerism. Other titles of her Ms. America Pageant company include Ms. International, Teen Ms. America, Ms. America Beauty Teen and Ms. America Fitness Pageants.

Miss America 1967, the 40th Miss America pageant, was held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey on September 10, 1966. It was televised in the United States on NBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss America 2012</span> 85th edition of the Miss America competition

Miss America 2012, the 85th Miss America pageant, was held at the Theatre for the Performing Arts of Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada on Saturday, January 14, 2012. Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan from Nebraska, crowned her successor Laura Kaeppeler from Wisconsin at the end of this event. It was broadcast live on ABC. All 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico competed for the title.

Tracy Elizabeth Dahl is a Canadian coloratura soprano who has performed in opera houses and on concert stages around the world. Alongside her performing career, Dahl teaches voice at the University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music, and conducts masterclasses and workshops across North America. She lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba with her husband and two children.

Georgia Lynn Canady is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was crowned Miss Oklahoma's Outstanding Teen 2009 and Miss Oklahoma 2015. She competed for the Miss America 2016 title in September 2015 and placed in the Top 10.

Beverly Hoch is an American coloratura soprano and music educator who has had an active performance career in operas, concerts, and on recordings since the late 1970s. She has been teaching at Texas Woman's University since 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Gale</span> English operatic soprano

Margaret Winifred Gale is an English operatic soprano who sang leading roles with Sadler's Wells Opera Company throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.

References

  1. 1 2 Wilson, Linda D. (2001). "Miss America". Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society. Archived from the original on July 3, 2011. Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  2. Pearlman, Penny (2008). Pretty Smart: Lessons from our Miss Americas. Authorhouse. p. 71. ISBN   1-4389-3760-1 . Retrieved July 15, 2011.
  3. "Review". Opera News. Canadian Opera Association, Canadian Opera Guild. 22. 1981. Retrieved July 16, 2011.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Susan Powell at Wikimedia Commons

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Miss America
1981
Succeeded by
Preceded by Miss Oklahoma
1980
Succeeded by