Carol Brice

Carol Brice was guest faculty and performer for many summer Music Institutes; including 1945 Summer Session Performer and Guest Faculty, 1947 Summer Session performer, 1950-1951 Guest Faculty, and 1952-1953 Guest Faculty.

Biography, as shared in a 1945 college bulletin,

"Carol Brice, reared and educated at the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, North Carolina, won unusual recognition as a girl with the famous Sedalia Singers in their many concert tours that included recitals at Symphony Hall in Boston and Town Hall in New York City. From Palmer Institute she went for special study to Talledega College in Telladega, Alabama, noted for its excellence in voice culture and piano-forte instruction, where, upon obtaining her degree of Bachelor of Music in New York City. Here she became the pupil of one of New York’s most eminent teachers, Francis Rogers. She has frequently been presented in concerts at the school as an outstanding vocal artist; 1945 Summer Music Institute, 1947 Summer Session performer, 1950-1951 Guest, 1952-1953 Guest.

"Miss Brice as a concert contralto has made successful tours in all parts of the country. Her most recent acclaim came from the director of the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Dr Efrem Kurtz, who, in presenting Miss Brice over an NBC coast-to-coast hookup as a soloist with the orchestra, said: “Here is one of the greatest voices of our time. Miss Brice was presented at Town Hall in March under the management of the Naumburg Foundation as the winner of its award in a recent contest of outstanding contralto soloists in New York City. Brice held four song recitals and voice lessons for the 1945 Summer Music Institute; Four Lecture Demonstrations. The Italian Song, the French Song, Songs by Schubert and Schumann, the English and American Song. (once weekly)”

Source: Asheville Art Museum Theodore Dreier Archival Collection.

Writings about Carol can be seen in digitized college bulletins on Asheville Art Museum's collection website: collection.ashevilleart.org. They can be found by searching these accession numbers: 2017.40.208, 2017.40.209

Edward Lowinsky to Fred Wale, Julius Rosenwald Fund, 1 August, 1945,

“Miss Brice and her family left us the day before yesterday, much to the regret of the community. On the day of her last concert, Mr. Hayes and his family arrived. Mr. Hayes had never heard her sing before. It was wonderful to see with what enthusiasm the mature and experienced artist welcomed this new and young talent. We had a session together in our home, at which Mr. Hayes sang his arrangements of Negro spirituals to Carol Brice, and explained in a fascinating manner in his lifelong work with Negro music and his studies of African music, which helped him find a solution to the difficult spiritual. At the end he asked her which of his arrangements she wanted, since they are unpublished, and promised her that he would have copies made so that she could use them at her concerts. Naturally, she wanted them all.”

Interracial Program Files, Black Mountain College Collection, Western Regional Archive, Asheville, NC