Paula A. Newberry
CROONING COLORED CASSIDY is a classically trained African-American opera singer – well educated, attractive, petite, feisty and MAD AS THE DICKENS at the opera industry. At her breaking point after years of endless voice lessons coaching sessions, auditions and self-created artistic performance avenues, she ponders over two questions: “Why are there some many voice teachers taking their personal problems out on their students?” AND “Why have these so called important and prestigious voice competitions and auditions turned into greedy money making machines charging outrageous entrance fees when their real purpose is supposed to be helping aspiring opera singers embark on promising careers?”
Paula Newberry, (Soprano), has been entertaining audiences with her powerful lyric coloratura soprano voice since the tender age of two when she used to tap her tiny feet near the organist’s pit at her family’s Baptist church in Memphis, Tennessee. Her formal classical vocal training began at the age of 14. She graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of music with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She has studied with the likes of Grace Bumbry at the Internationale Sommerakademie Universität Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria), Marcie Stapp (San Francisco, CA), David Tigner (San Francisco, CA), Monroe Kanouse (Sacramento Opera Conductor) and Ethel Maxwell (Memphis, TN) to name a few. She has performed with the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium (Spoleto, Italy), Central Florida Lyric Opera, Opera Memphis, Oakland Opera, Cinnabar Opera, San Francisco Lilliput Players’ Children’s Theatre, Como Opera Guild, River Repertory Theater and many more. Her U.S. concert tour features the “Evening of Opera” and “Spirit Moving Spirituals" concerts and has included Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), Germantown Performing Arts Centre, Rust College Concert Hall, Rhodes College Auditorium, Borders Book Store, Barnes and Noble Book Store, Amro Music Recital Hall, The Orlando Florida Urban League, The Memphis Junior Urban League, The San Francisco Bay area and many more venues. Her audio and video recordings include “Evening of Opera Excerpts” II ©2004, “Christmas at St. Mary’s,” ©2003 “Spirit Moving Spirituals” ©2001 and “Evening of Opera Excerpts I,” ©1997. TV/FILM credits include “Walking the Line (The Johnny Cash Movie),” “The Bachelor,” “Mumford,” “Rookie Bookie,” “Take me back to Beale” and “Going to California.” Ms. Newberry has received numerous vocal scholarships and grants from Bagby Musical Foundation (New York) Community Foundation (The Autian Fund), Society of Singers, MusiCares, The Actor’s Fund, The AGMA Relief Fund, Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium, University of Miami @ Salzburg, Austria, The Beethoven Club Vocal Scholarships and performance Award, acceptance into the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, a Congressional Scholarship from former Congressman.
Well, besides being about ten shades darker in pigmentation than her White opera singer counterparts, and besides defying all odds of even attempting to pursue a field in music that represents the highest music art form known as opera, I have been asking myself why Crooning Colored Cassidy, an African-American opera singer, would be denied opportunities to perform in major operatic roles. Her vocal range soars easily up to the high “F” in Mozart’s role of “The Queen of the Night” in Mozart’s famous opera, Die Zauberflöte. The rejection really doesn’t affect her mental state of mind or hasn’t as of yet taken a severe toll on her, yet this self-convincing has been to no avail. After reading a truly heart wrenching article years ago about a distraught African-American tenor, I can truly say that old gremlin known as PREJUDICE has lurked it’s way even into the upper echelon of the performing arts field. However, in a more sophisticated form. His attempts at securing a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City had been futile attempts. This tenor’s attempts had failed, in his opinion, because he had been auditioning for leading roles that would appear opposite white female roles. I believe, were the situation, vice versa with an African-American female auditioning for a lead role opposite a white male leading role, there would not be as much of a problem. You see, Crooning Colored Cassidy has encountered enormous prejudice too, yet this prejudice was sugar coated under massive subtlety. She too has been slapped in the face with constant rejection. Her rejection has been in the form of denial letters, snide comments on the size and timbre of her voice, and general full of it excuses. These letters never really give a suitable explanation for the rejection except to say, “The competition you were up against was very stiff or fierce and we cannot comment on your audition performance.” Well, my question is this. Why NOT? If these people who send these dad blasted letters meant well or were really trying to HELP young opera singers improve, then why would they NOT want to comment?
