Brenda Usher-Carpino Sings Aria 'Divinités du Styx' by W. Gluck in Oakland, CA 4 PM Jan. 29

[Brenda Usher-Carpino, Ph.D.]

On Jan. 13, 2012 AfriClassical posted: “SFCV.org: 'Danzas and Arias,' Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Afro-British Composer, and Arturo Marquez, Mexican composer.” Today the Oakland Public Conservatory points out:

“The program Danzas and Arias highlights local vocal soloist Brenda Usher-Carpino, who serves as OPC's Managing Director, in a performance of the aria Divinités du Styx from W. Gluck's opera, Alceste."

OPCMusic.org

“Brenda’s lifelong passions have consistently been in the arts. Her earliest childhood dreams were to be a classical pianist, a painter, a sculptor, a dancer, a novelist, and the first black diva to sing the principal role at the New York Metropolitan Opera—in that order. The reality is that life saw fit to take her down other paths first. It was many years later that she would study classical piano at the same time as her then four-year old daughter and even later when she would begin studying classical voice. Writing, however, was the one passion she could pursue early on anytime and anywhere because it only required a notebook, a pencil, and a place to sit and write.

“You Better Not Cry is the title of a novel Brenda has been working on for many years. She has written short stories, poems and plays, has acted in film and on the community stage, and has performed solo as soprano/mezzo soprano. She has produced two successful staged readings of her play Blood Types, has sung with the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, the Oakland symphony Chorus, and the OPC Symphony. She has also been a student at OPC where she took Vocal Performance with Branice McKenzie, and a Blues class with the Founder and Director, Angela Wellman, where she got to explore the musical genre on piano.”

“She embraces OPC with great passion and returns as Interim Managing Director, after a two-year hiatus in graduate school, because she believes in its potential and its capacity as the first Public Conservatory in the nation, to continue putting an accomplished face on our music community and playing a key role in its rising visibility.

“Dr. Usher-Carpino recently received her MFA in English and Creative Writing from Mills College. She holds a B.A. (UCB), M.A. (CSUH) and a Ph.D. (Stanford) in French. Brenda’s daughter Crystal is an honors graduate of Harvard and is currently studying law at Hastings School of Law.”