Maria Tallchief made her mark as one of the greatest Osage dancers - in the ballet. The ballet was (and I suspect still is) not known for a great Indian presence, yet Maria found her calling and her life’s work there. Barbara McAlister has, in a way, followed a similar path...She is a Cherokee who has made her mark as a singer - in the opera. She has spent much of her life singing throughout Europe and the United States, and will soon be performing in the Middle East. She recently joined Wes Studi, Rita Coolidge and other noted Cherokee artists in receiving the first annual Cherokee Medal of Honor. The award was given by the Cherokee Honor Society in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, to those who have brought honor to the Cherokee people. Not bad for a tomboy from Muskogee.

Barbara and I had spoken a few times on the phone, trying to arrange a meeting. Her telephone manner is warm, yet formal, and being that she is of the world of classical music, I thought maybe our meeting would be rather “correct”...maybe even a little bit staid....We arranged to meet at the fountain outside of Lincoln Center, then we would find a place to have coffee.

I arrived and located Barbara at the fountain. We shook hands, and I asked if she wanted to find a place for coffee. She looked at me straight and hard and said “I just had a hamburger. I was hungry. Are you hungry?” I knew then that we would have a good time. We found a bench under some trees, and I spent the next hour being charmed by this warm, witty, and immensely talented Cherokee from Oklahoma.

Barbara grew up in a musical family in Muskogee. Her father was a doctor who had studied singing in high school and college, and enjoyed singing with a barbershop quartet in his spare time. Her mother played the piano. “ I would just sit and listen. My father had the most beautiful bass voice. My parents also had a collection of very old records - from the early 1900’s - Caruso, Rosa Ponselle - I would listen to those, too. Of course I also loved rock and roll, country and western...” As if on cue, I immediately started singing “I’m proud to be an Okie from Muskogee”. Barbara smiled wryly and remembered “I was at a party not too long ago...everyone was from there...they all started singing that song. I didn’t know all the words so I just mouthed along.”

Her first love was horses - she grew up riding in rodeos.. “That’s where the tomboy thing comes in.” When she was eight years old her parents surprised her with a horse for Christmas. “His name was Pete. This trailer pulled up and out backed this Bay horse - reddish brown, with a black mane and tail, and a black saddle and bridle. My parents had recently bought a bit of land out back of our house, and I spent all my time riding. “
I asked Barbara what is was like growing up in Muskogee. “ We lived in a beautiful two story house, with a basement and an attic. My father, being a doctor, took care of people all over town...It was segregated at the time, with the area called ‘Blacktown’ two doors up from us - but I knew everyone and everyone knew me. I thought everyone was the same.” She laughs as she recalls “I used to ride that horse up and down the streets, so everyone knew me!”

Barbara’s mother was from English/German extraction - her people arriving to these shores in the 1700’s. Her father’s people had been in Oklahoma for generations - before it was the state of Oklahoma, back when it was Indian Territory. Much of the traditional Cherokee ways had been lost by then, but being the survivors they are, they adapted and thrived in this new world.

“ I was always an Indian on that horse! I would wear outfits, paint myself!” She leans in and tells me “I first discovered I was a girl when I was playing Tonto!’ In a near whisper she says “ I was twelve. I was on my horse and I had my chest painted with red stripes. Of course I didn’t have a shirt on. I was galloping down this hill, with my horse Pete, and suddenly I looked down and said ‘Oh my god, I’m a girl!’ I rode home fast, and I never went out without a shirt again.”

Despite being such a tomboy, Barbara grew into a shy teenager. She sang, but only in the church choir. In college, she studied singing, but during her summers in summer stock, she stayed in the chorus or worked backstage. When she graduated from school, she was told that her voice wasn’t good enough to be a singer and that she was too shy anyway. Rather than sit back, Barbara instead began to develop another skill - painting, in which she was quite successful.

Within a year she was singing in choruses in Hollywood, studying acting, and determined not to let “them” dampen her dream. There, she met her first master singing teacher, Lee Sweetland, who with his wife Sally, became a second family to Barbara. “They saved my life, really. They taught me how to sing. They showed me that singing is based on speech. Take a big breath and sing the words”. (She now works with their son, Steve Sweetland). Soon after, she made her operatic debut in Los Angeles as the Mother in Menotti’s The Consul. Next, she won the coveted Loren Zachary Opera Award, which resulted in an invitation to Germany - where her career really took off.

“I arrived in Zurich with the phone numbers of two agents and no knowledge of German. I ended up in Munich for a few months, and nothing much happened. Then I caught a horrible cold and couldn’t audition. A friend in Koblenz said to come there, and I did...and I got hired by the Stadtheater Koblenz, where I stayed for three years..”

Barbara eventually stayed in Germany for ten years, performing over 40 roles in the opera as a dramatic mezzo soprano. Some of her favorite roles are Carmen in Carmen, Eboli in Don Carlo, Ortuto in Lohengrin, and Azucana in Il Tovatore. She also performed at the world famous Opera de Monte Carlo, in Monaco. “ I really wanted to sing there, but I didn’t know how. So, I just wrote a letter to Prince Ranier - he gave it to someone, and I got asked to audition, and got hired”.

Barbara’s journey in music brought her back to the States several years ago. Since then she has sung with New York Grand Opera at Central Park at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, as well as performed in recital throughout Oklahoma. She recently appeared in the world premier of the musical Mountain Windsong in Tahlequah, which is based on the novel by the Cherokee author Robert J Connely. Prior to that she was seen as Eboli in Don Carlo at Arizona Opera, and as Rosseweisse in Die Walkurie at Florentine Opera in Milwaukee. These are just mere mentions of all the singing she has done in the last few years.

She looks forward to singingin the world premiere of the new opera Ochelata’s Wedding, written by Jean-Michel Damase. This will take place at the OK Mozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma in summer 2000.
With her joy of singing, and the way her eyes dance when she talks about it, I asked her if she ever considered teaching. She shook her head, and said “someone once told me that the only time to consider teaching is if you are about to go on stage, and you don’t want to. Then, you teach. Me, I’m not ready yet. I love singing. I love the stage. Singing is my life.”.
All the world’s a stage. She has sung on many of the world’s finest.. And she can’t wait to do it again. Not bad for a tomboy from Oklahoma.

(Barbara McAlister can be heard on her new CD “Soul Journey”, subtitled “Cherokee Heritage Meets the Classics”, on which she is accompanied by renowned pianist Linda Hall. Look for it in New York City at Tower Records near Lincoln Center, NMAI; in Oklahoma, at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum, the Cherokee Nation Gift and the Cherokee Heritage Gift Shop.)