Angela Brown

Angela M. Brown (born 1963) is an African-American dramatic soprano particularly admired for her portrayal of Verdi heroines.

Angela Brown was born in 1963 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her mother, Freddie Mae Brown, was a painter, and her father, Walter Clyde Brown, was an autoworker at a Chrysler plant in Indianapolis for 41 years. Along with older brother George and younger brother Aaron, Brown was raised in a deeply spiritual Baptist household. Her grandfather was a Baptist minister in the city and Brown started singing at his church when she was 5 years old. Brown credits her musical experiences at church as instilling in her a love for singing.

As a teenager, Brown started performing in Soul Music bands around Indianapolis and was highly active in the vocal music program at Crispus Attucks High School. Her high school choir director, Robert Fleck, taught Brown her first classical arias and entered her in several local music competitions, all of which Brown won. Brown also participated in her high school's musicals, playing Adelaide in Guys and Dolls among other roles.

After high school, Brown attended a community college in Indianapolis part-time while working a day job as a dietary aide at a Methodist Hospital. She also acted in several musicals at the pro-am Civic Theater where she got to work with several notable performers including Ginger Rogers. Brown also worked as a singing waitress for a time.

The death of her younger brother led Brown, then 20, to re-examine her faith and join the Seventh-day Adventist Church with intent to become a singing evangelist. To that end, in the fall of 1986, at the age of 21, Brown enrolled at Oakwood College planning to major in biblical studies with a minor in music. Brown subsequently changed her major to music, however, after her voice teacher, Ginger Beazley, convinced her to pursue opera singing instead. Brown received a bachelor's degree in the Spring of 1991.

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