Angel Blue
Angel Blue (May 3, 1984) born Angel Joy Blue is an American operatic soprano and classical crossover artist. 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[1] and Miss Hollywood. Plácido Domingo has described Angel as “the next Leontyne Price”.
Career
Angel Blue has performed lead roles and as a featured soloist at Los Angeles Opera, San Francisco Opera, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Colburn School, Royce Hall, the Staples Center, Auditorio Nacional de Música, Seoul Arts Center.[2][3]
Her operatic repertoire includes such roles as Violetta (La Traviata), Musetta and Mimi (La Boheme), Micaela (Carmen), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Helena (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Liu (Turandot), Manon (Manon), Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Giulietta and Antonia (Tales of Hoffmann), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), and Donna Elvira (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.[4]
In the 2008/09 season, Blue made her debut with the San Francisco Opera Company as Clara in Porgy and Bess; she was the featured soloist with the Valdosta Symphony in Valdosta, Georgia, where she sang the soprano role in Arthur Honegger's King David; and she also performed scenes from La Traviata (Violetta) with the Korean Symphony Orchestra Germany in Seoul and Busan, Korea. In the 2009/10 season she was a featured soloist with the Riverside Philharmonic; the Adrian Symphony in Adrian, Michigan; Giro Italia tour with Alberto Zedda throughout Italy; Madrilenos por Haiti concert with La Orquesta Clasica de Espana in Madrid, Spain; A Gala Evening with Thomas Hampson in Budapest, Hungary; and she made her debut at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia as Micaela in Carmen, opposite Marcelo Alvarez and Elina Garanca, conducted by Zubin Mehta. Throughout the 2010/11 season, Blue enjoyed engagements with the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Spain; the American Youth Symphony; the Redlands Symphony; and the Theatre an der Wien in Vienna, Austria where she sang the role of Giulietta in the Tales of Hoffmann directed by Oscar winning director William Friedkin.
Blue was a finalist in Operalia 2009, receiving 1st place in the Zarzuela competition, and 2nd place in the Opera competition. In July 2010, Blue was honored to be a part of the 17th Annual Verbier Festival in Verbier, Switzerland, where she sang in an "Operalia Tribute" Concert sponsored by Rolex. She has also received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions, A.E.I.O.U Italian Educators Vocal Competition, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's Emerging Young Entertainers Award, and the Redlands Bowl Competition. In 2011, she toured with Plácido Domingo, opening the Kaufmann Center in Kansas City, Missouri; the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman, and concerts in Beijing, China, as well as Zagreb, Croatia.
In upcoming seasons Blue revisits Clara in Porgy and Bess in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle; returns to the Frankfurt Opera as the Dritte Norn in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung; and performs Musetta, La Bohème, for the English National Opera. Concert performances will take place in Europe, including Carmina Burana at the Maggio Musicale with Zubin Mehta, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Munich Philharmonic, Verdi's Greatest Hits concert with the Santa Barbara Symphony, Verdi Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, and the release of her first solo album with British pianist Iain Burnside.
Awards
In 2009, Angel Blue was a finalist in Operalia, receiving 1st place in the Zarzuela competition, and 2nd place in the Opera competition.[5][6] 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.[7] Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Achievement Award January 21, 2014, given by Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Michael Antonovich.
Education
Blue received a Masters of Music degree in Opera Performance from UCLA[8] in 2007 and a Bachelor’s of Music from the University of Redlands in 2005. She is an alumna 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. Blue is a current member of the Artistas de la Academia "Plácido Domingo" del Palau de les Arts from 2009–2010, under Maestros Alberto Zedda, Lorin Maazel, and Zubin Mehta.[9]
Causes
In 2010 Angel Blue was a featured soloist on the Madrilenos por Haiti 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.
March 2014 Blue took part in the annual AIDS Gala in Düsseldorf, Germany. The gala raised 142,000€ to help those effected by AIDS and HIV in both Germany and South Africa.
Pageants
The 5’11” (180.0 cm) soprano is a former model and beauty queen. Blue was the first and only African-American to have held the title of Miss Apple Valley California. She has held such titles as Miss Hollywood 2005, and 1st runner up to both Miss California 2006 and Miss Nevada 2007[10][11] and finished 1st runner up at Miss California 2005.[12] In 2005 Blue represented the state of California as Miss California Sweetheart at the National Sweetheart Pageant, where she won the overall talent award singing “Sempre Libera.”