Carol Brice

Carol Brice was an American contralto who created Maria in Houston Grand Opera's 1976 Porgy and Bess. Trained at Talladega College and the Juilliard School, she gained early notice in the 1939 World's Fair production of The Hot Mikado, and in 1943 became the first African American to win the Walter Naumburg Award. She recorded Manuel de Falla's El amor brujo, took Broadway roles including Kakou in Saratoga, and was a member of the Vienna Volksoper from 1967 to 1971. From 1974 she taught at the University of Oklahoma, where she co-founded the Cimarron Circuit Opera Company.