After completing her studies (Dance, Acting and Voice) at the Howard University College of Fine Arts in Washington, Alston was engaged to Switzerland and also toured Berlin (Theater des Westens), Karlsruhe, Kaiserslautern, Cologne, Paris, Graz, Linz, and Vienna. She played leading roles in several musicals: Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate (as Kate), in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar (Mary Magdalene), Mitch Leigh’s Der Mann von La Mancha (Aldonza), Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble In Tahiti, and West Side Story (Anita). Aside from theatre, Alston also performed classical and contemporary music, jazz, gospel and blues on radio and television, and has been on stage with artists such as Karl Schönböck, David Hasselhoff, Harry Neuwirth, and José Carreras. After years of touring - such as with Bernstein’s Mass - Alston settled in Vienna. Besides teaching, she has sung at the Volksoper, the Karajan Center, the Wiener Musikverein, and the Linzer Brucknerhaus. In Vienna, she also performed two contemporary pieces composed by Nancy Van de Vate, “Cocaine Lil” and “Venal Vera”. In 2000, she choreographed, staged and played the part of Nell in Ain’t Misbehavin’, the musical named after the song by Fats Waller. With the Wiener Kammeroper (Vienna Chamber Opera), she reprised the role (under the direction of Giorgio Madia), as well as the role of Julia in the European premiere of the a cappella musical Avenue X in 2005. As a jazz vocalist, she first appeared with Erich Kleinschuster to present performances in Jazzland, Birdland, Porgy and Bess, the Salzburger Jazzherbst, and other events. In 2006, she performed her own piece on the remarkable and all-too-brief life of Billie Holiday in Vienna’s English Theatre and her last program “Ladies You’re On” in Birdland and Jazzland. Carole Alston’s official site: http://www.carolealston.com |
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