Angel Blue
Encyclopedia
Angel Joy Blue is an American
operatic soprano
. Blue's voice has been recognized for its shining and agile upper register, "smoky" middle register, and beautiful timbre. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards such as Operalia and Miss Hollywood
. Placido Domingo
has described Angel as “the next Leontyne Price
”.
, San Francisco Opera
, Walt Disney Concert Hall
, the Colburn School
, Royce Hall
, the Staples Center
, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Seoul Arts Center
.
Her operatic repertoire includes such roles as Violetta (La Traviata
), Musetta (La Boheme
), Micaela (Carmen
), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor
), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Liu (Turandot
), Manon (Manon
), Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Olympia and Antonia (Tales of Hoffmann), Dido (Dido and Aeneas
), and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni
).
Blue has sung the National Anthem
for the Border Governors Conference
, hosted by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
, and for the California Women's Conference
, hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver
.
competition, and 2nd place in the Opera competition. She has also received awards from the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
’s Emerging Young Entertainers Award, and the Redlands Bowl
Competition.
degree in Opera Performance from UCLA in 2007 and a Bachelor’s of Music
from the University of Redlands
in 2005. She is an alumnus of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
where she studied voice
and classical piano. She was a member of the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera
from 2007/2009. Angel is a current member of the Artistas de la Academia "Placido Domingo" del Palau de les Arts from 2009–2010, under Maestros Alberto Zedda
, Lorin Maazel
, and Zubin Mehta
.
concert with La Orquesta Clasica de Espana in Madrid
, Spain
. The concert was dedicated to raising funds for housing projects for Haitians who have relocated to the Dominican Republic
.
and beauty queen
. Blue was the first and only African-American to have held the title of Miss Apple Valley California. She competed in the Miss Empire America pageant and received 1st runner in 2003. She has held such titles as Miss Hollywood
2005, Miss Southern California 2006, and 1st runner up to both Miss California
2006 and Miss Nevada
2007 and finished 1st runner up at Miss California
2005. In 2005 Angel represented the state of California as Miss California Sweetheart at the National Sweetheart Pageant, where she won the overall talent award singing “Sempre Libera
.”
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operatic soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
. Blue's voice has been recognized for its shining and agile upper register, "smoky" middle register, and beautiful timbre. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards such as Operalia and Miss Hollywood
Miss Hollywood
The Miss Hollywood competition is an official preliminary pageant to Miss California and Miss America.The pageant has been held since 1997. In 13 years, two titleholders have won Miss California and all titleholders have earned a total of $123,575 in scholarships at the local, state and national...
. Placido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
has described Angel as “the next Leontyne Price
Leontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
”.
Career
Angel Blue has performed lead roles and as a featured soloist at Los Angeles OperaLos Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
, San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
, Walt Disney Concert Hall
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra and the...
, the Colburn School
Colburn School
The Colburn School is a music, dance, and drama school located in downtown Los Angeles adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art and across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall...
, Royce Hall
Royce Hall
Royce Hall is a building on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles . Designed by the Los Angeles firm of Allison & Allison in the Italian Romanesque Revival style and completed in 1929, it is one of the four original buildings on UCLA's Westwood campus and has come to be the...
, the Staples Center
Staples Center
Staples Center is a multi-purpose sports arena in Downtown Los Angeles. Adjacent to the L.A. Live development, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along Figueroa Street. Opening on October 17, 1999, it is one of the major sporting facilities in the Greater Los Angeles...
, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Seoul Arts Center
Seoul Arts Center
The Seoul Arts Center, literally the Hall of Arts, is a cultural center in Seocho-gu, the southern area of Seoul, South Korea.Measuring in 12,0350 m², it consists of many different halls and centers for many diverse art forms. It began construction in 1984, and opened all its doors in 1993...
.
Her operatic repertoire includes such roles as Violetta (La Traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
), Musetta (La Boheme
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
), Micaela (Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Liu (Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
), Manon (Manon
Manon
Manon is an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Philippe Gille, based on the 1731 novel L’histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost...
), Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Olympia and Antonia (Tales of Hoffmann), Dido (Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
), and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
).
Blue has sung the National Anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
for the Border Governors Conference
Border Governors Conference
The Border Governors Conference is an annual, bi-national meeting between the governors of the four American states and six Mexican states that form the Mexico – United States border...
, hosted by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
, and for the California Women's Conference
The Women's Conference
The Women's Conference is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization and annual forum for women. The event first began in 1986 as a California government initiative for working professionals and women business owners...
, hosted by California First Lady Maria Shriver
Maria Shriver
Maria Owings Shriver is an American journalist and author of six best-selling books. She has received a Peabody Award, and was co-anchor for NBC's Emmy-winning coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympics. As executive producer of The Alzheimer's Project, Shriver earned two Emmy Awards and an Academy of...
.
Awards
In 2009, Ms. Blue was a finalist in Operalia, receiving 1st place in the ZarzuelaZarzuela
Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
competition, and 2nd place in the Opera competition. She has also received awards from the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
National Council Auditions, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion
The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is one of the halls in the Los Angeles Music Center . The Music Center's other halls include the Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre, and Walt Disney Concert Hall.The Pavilion has 3,197 seats spread over four tiers, with chandeliers, wide curving stairways and rich décor...
’s Emerging Young Entertainers Award, and the Redlands Bowl
Redlands Bowl
The Redlands Bowl is an amphitheatre in Redlands, California, USA, founded in 1924, and used for music and theatric performances that are offered to the public for free....
Competition.
Education
Blue received a Masters of MusicMaster of Music
The Master of Music is the first graduate degree in Music awarded by universities and music conservatories. The M.Mus. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy...
degree in Opera Performance from UCLA in 2007 and a Bachelor’s of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
from the University of Redlands
University of Redlands
The University of Redlands is a private liberal arts and sciences university located in Redlands, California. The university's campus sits on near downtown Redlands. The university was founded in 1907 and was associated with the American Baptist Church. The land for the university was donated by...
in 2005. She is an alumnus of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts is a Visual and Performing Arts high school located on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1984, the public, tuition-free school offers both college preparatory courses and...
where she studied voice
Voice
Voice may refer to:* Human voice* Voice control or voice activation* Writer's voice* Voice acting* Voice vote* Voice message-In film:* Voice , a 2005 South Korean film* The Voice , a 2010 Turkish horror film directed by Ümit Ünal...
and classical piano. She was a member of the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
from 2007/2009. Angel is a current member of the Artistas de la Academia "Placido Domingo" del Palau de les Arts from 2009–2010, under Maestros Alberto Zedda
Alberto Zedda
Alberto Zedda is an Italian conductor and musicologist, a specialist of the 19th century Italian repertoire.Zedda studied in his native Milan with Antonino Votto and Carlo Maria Giulini, and made his debut there as conductor in 1956, with Il barbiere di Siviglia...
, Lorin Maazel
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...
, and Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
.
Causes
Angel Blue has been a featured soloist on the Madrilenos por HaitiHaiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
concert with La Orquesta Clasica de Espana in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. The concert was dedicated to raising funds for housing projects for Haitians who have relocated to the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
.
Pageants
In addition to singing, the 5’11” soprano is a former modelModel (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and beauty queen
Beauty Queen
"Beauty Queen" is the second song from Roxy Music's second album, For Your Pleasure. The lyrics refer to Ferry's girlfriend, Valerie Leon, one-time UK beauty queen, B-movie actress and model working in the Newcastle area, circa 1973.-Musicians:...
. Blue was the first and only African-American to have held the title of Miss Apple Valley California. She competed in the Miss Empire America pageant and received 1st runner in 2003. She has held such titles as Miss Hollywood
Miss Hollywood
The Miss Hollywood competition is an official preliminary pageant to Miss California and Miss America.The pageant has been held since 1997. In 13 years, two titleholders have won Miss California and all titleholders have earned a total of $123,575 in scholarships at the local, state and national...
2005, Miss Southern California 2006, and 1st runner up to both Miss California
Miss California
For the state pageant affiliated with Miss USA, see Miss California USAThe Miss California competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America pageant. Delegates from the states of California, Ohio and Oklahoma have each won the title of Miss...
2006 and Miss Nevada
Miss Nevada
The Miss Nevada competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Nevada in the Miss America pageant.- Winners :- External links :*...
2007 and finished 1st runner up at Miss California
Miss California
For the state pageant affiliated with Miss USA, see Miss California USAThe Miss California competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America pageant. Delegates from the states of California, Ohio and Oklahoma have each won the title of Miss...
2005. In 2005 Angel represented the state of California as Miss California Sweetheart at the National Sweetheart Pageant, where she won the overall talent award singing “Sempre Libera
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
.”