Barbara McAlister (born 1942) is a mezzo-soprano Native American opera singer from Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Background Barbara McAlister was born Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1942.Conley, Robert J. A Cherokee encyclopedia. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007: 147–148. (retrieved through Google Books, 7 April 2009) . 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.
For her dedication to promoting the Cherokee language, she was awarded the Cherokee Medal of Honor from the Cherokee Honor Society.Duvall, Deborah L. Tahlequah and the Cherokee Nation. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2000: 112. .
Musical career She won the Loren Zachary Competition in Los Angeles, which launched her career.Resume. Barbara McAlister. (retrieved 7 April 2009) 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 the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and has performed with companies throughout Europe and the United States.
Visual arts McAlister also paints in the Bacone style of flat-style Native painting from Prairie, Plains, and Eastern tribes.Williams, John L. "Bacone College." Oklahoma History Center's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. (retrieved 6 Nov 2009) 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.
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