Jacobs alumna donates collection

Former Jacobs School of Music student and acclaimed opera singer Angela Brown has donated all of her papers, news articles, photo clippings and other materials that review her life as a singer.

Brown grew up in Indianapolis and started her passion for music in her church as a gospel singer. This eventually broadened to other music styles to include R&B, classical and Broadway musicals.

It was when she started at Jacobs that she said she began her opera singing career.
“Brown showed how opera could be brought to the masses with her combination of classical opera arias and African-American traditional storytelling,” ethnomusicology professor Portia Maultsby said.

Maultsby said she believes that Brown wanted to inspire other minorities to pursue the world of opera since the art style had originally been favored for high-class European citizens.

One of Brown’s more recent endeavors was called “Opera from a Sistah’s Point of View,” which took classical opera arias and told them through classical African-American Folklore.

“I believe that Brown gives African-Americans a better context for these operas through her storytelling and so they can connect much better to the subject matter,” Maultsby said.

Maultsby said she believes “you do not have to give up one tradition for the other because they can both coexist if they are combined.”

The hope is to see more minority singers in the opera world, and Brown is providing the tools for them, Maultsby said.

Brown’s donations act as a guide for new singers at the Jacobs school on how she started her career.

This collection is currently being organized and sorted to be compiled online through
IUCAT.

It describes not only what music Brown performed, but also what types of audiences she had so sociology, ethnomusicology and gender studies majors can study general changes in race and music trends.

There is also a PowerPoint in the works that new students can use to research Brown’s career as well as African-American women’s influence in the world of opera.

Longtime friend of Brown and former dean of the Jacobs School of Music Charles Webb has toured with Brown in places like Zimbabwe, Florida, Texas and Indianapolis.
Webb was the first to see her audition tape when she was applying for the Jacobs School of Music.

“Her voice was in a class by itself,” Webb said. “She had made an impression before I had met her.”

He helped her career starting with one of her major performances in the musical “1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” Webb said one of his proudest moments of Brown was when he saw the front page New York Times review of Brown’s performance in the Verdi piece “Aida,” which got outstanding praise.

Webb said he agrees with Maultsby, saying he believes Brown’s style makes opera easier for many people to understand. Webb still continues to perform with her.

He said he thinks Brown still has many things to come for her and said he hopes that maybe someday she will come back to her home at the Jacobs school and teach some of the material she was so gracious to donate.