Kiri Te Kanawa Kiri Te Kanawa Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa (; born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron, 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand soprano. She has a full lyric soprano voice, which has been described as "mellow yet vibrant, warm, ample and unforced". Te Kanawa has received accolades in many countries, singing a wide array of works in many languages dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini, and has found considerable success in portraying princesses, nobility, and other similar characters on stage. Though she rarely sang opera
Barbara McAlister (opera singer) Barbara McAlister (opera singer) Barbara McAlister (born 1941) is an internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Native American opera singer from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Barbara McAlister was born Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1941. She is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation, a descendant of Old Tassel, and half German/Cherokee through her mother. She aspired to be a country-western singer in her youth, but learned to love opera from her parents. For her dedication to promoting the Cherokee language, she was awarded the Cherokee Medal of Honor from the Cherokee Honor Society. She won the Loren Zachary Competition in Los Angeles, California, which launched her