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.