Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s.
Roberta Peters was an American coloratura soprano.
Estelle Liebling was an American soprano, composer, arranger, music editor, and celebrated voice teacher and vocal coach.
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.
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.
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.
Judith Raskin was an American lyric soprano, renowned for her fine voice as well as her acting.
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.
Harolyn Blackwell is an American lyric coloratura soprano who has performed in many of the world's finest opera houses, concert halls, and theaters in operas, oratorios, recitals, and Broadway musicals. Initially known for her work within musical theater during the early 1980s, Blackwell moved into the field of opera and by 1987 had established herself as an artist within the soubrette repertoire in many major opera houses both in the United States and in Europe. Feeling that she was being "type cast" into one particular kind of role, Blackwell strove to establish herself within the lyric coloratura repertoire beginning in the mid-1990s. With the aid of such companies as Seattle Opera, Blackwell successfully made this move and is now an interpreter of such roles as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Olympia in Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffman. She has also periodically returned to musical theater performances throughout her career in staged productions, concert work, and recitals. Blackwell is known for her interpretations and recordings of the works of Leonard Bernstein.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Margaret Winifred Gale is an English operatic soprano who sang leading roles with Sadler's Wells Opera Company throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.
