Contributed
Angela Powell Walker, Artistic Director at The School for Creative and Performing Arts in Cincinnati will sing The National Anthem at the opening of the FC Cincinnati soccer game on September 18 at TQL Stadium in the West End.
Critically acclaimed throughout the United States and Europe for her “quintessential lyric soprano voice,” soloist Angela Powell Walker personifies the highest standards of artistic performance in today’s classical music world.
Powell Walker joined the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) in August 2015 as artistic director. Her prior experience includes performing as an opera singer on the world stage and teaching at several universities and secondary schools, including the prestigious Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. She is a 1986 SCPA graduate.
Most recently, Powell Walker served as chief executive officer and artistic director of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati and as an adjunct faculty member at Northern Kentucky University, where she maintained a voice studio of 15 students, teaching established techniques for vocal production. She also was an adjunct at Washington Bible College and taught at Suitland High School Visual and Performing Arts, both in Lanham, Maryland.
Powell Walker earned a master’s degree in music at the University of Maryland and a bachelor’s degree in music at Oberlin (Ohio) Conservatory of Music.
She has appeared in numerous operatic roles, including the title role in CarlisleFloyd’s Susannah, Le Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Micaela in Carmen, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and is a long-time favorite of concert audiences at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her work has also been enthusiastically received at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, and by audiences in Rome, Prague and Vienna.
Powell has been a preeminent competitor, taking several first place awards, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition, the Paul Robeson Competition, the National Society of Arts and Letters Vocal Competition and the Sigma Slpha Iota National Vocal Competition. She is also a recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s highest grant awarded to a vocalist.
Powell Walker has appeared with leading orchestras in performances of music by such classicists as Bach, Brahms, Handel, Faure, Mozart and Verdi, and has premiered several works, including Adolphus Hailstork’s Done Made My Vow and Luigi Zaninelli’s opera Snow White, bringing to life the role of the Evil Queen. Powell Walker’s oratorios include the Brahms’ Requiem, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, Faure’s Requiem, Donald McCullough’s Holocaust Cantata and Mozart’s Requiem.
She has successfully entered into the world of arts administration. She serves on the CCMpower board, The American Legacy theatre, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and is an executive board member of the Cincinnati Opera.