Carolann Page

Carolann Page, born December 22, 1950, in Odessa, Texas, is an American singer and actress whose career spans musical theatre, opera, chamber music, and concert repertoire. She made her professional debut in 1973 at the Marlboro Music Festival, performing as a soloist in Beethoven's Choral Fantasy under the baton of Pablo Casals, with Rudolf Serkin at the piano.

Page's Broadway career began in 1974 and extended through 1976, encompassing two productions. She played Cunegonde in Hal Prince's revival of Candide and appeared in Music Is, the latter directed by George Abbott. Her association with the stage continued beyond Broadway through Encores! where she portrayed Marjorie in Allegro, directed by Susan Schulman, and through Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall, directed by Scott Ellis.

Her operatic career brought her international attention in 1987 when she originated the role of Pat Nixon in John Adams' Nixon in China, directed by Peter Sellars. Page appears on both the Grammy Award-winning Nonesuch recording and the Emmy Award-winning PBS telecast of that production. Among other world premieres, she created the role of Celia in the revised version of Carlisle Floyd's The Passion of Jonathan Wade, Mamah Cheney in Daron Hagen's Shining Brow, Doll in Hagen's Vera of Las Vegas, and Gayle in Michael Tippett's The Ice Break, performed in concert. Her standard operatic repertoire includes all three heroines in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, the title role in Massenet's Manon, and Elvira in Don Giovanni. She has performed with major opera companies in Houston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Cincinnati, Miami, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Edinburgh, the Netherlands, and the Bobigny in Paris.

Off-Broadway, Page created the role of Mary Lincoln in Asylum: The Strange Case of Mary Lincoln at the York Theatre, Gertrude Stein in Blood on the Dining Room Floor at the Signature Theatre, Sophie in The Fishkin Touch at the Jewish Repertory Theatre, and the Iowa Housewife in Menopause, the Musical at Playhouse 91. Her portrayal of Eleanor Roosevelt in Michael John LaChiusa's First Lady Suite at The Public Theater prompted New York Times critic Vincent Canby to write, "Remember the name of Carolann Page."

In concert and oratorio, Page has appeared with the symphonies of Dallas, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Honolulu, Virginia, London, Brno, and Prague, performing repertoire ranging from Handel, Mendelssohn, Britten, and Górecki to her own Evening of Sondheim programs with the San Francisco and Boston Pops orchestras. Her recital and chamber music appearances include the Marlboro, Blossom, OK Mozart, Ambler, Chautauqua, Cape and Islands, and DaCamera Society festivals.

Page comes from a distinguished musical family. Her father was conductor Robert Page, and her mother, Glynn Page, served as voice teacher emeritus at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Her sister, Paula Page, was principal harpist with the Houston Symphony from 1984 to 2014 and holds faculty positions at Rice University and the University of Houston. Page's son is Broadway actor, singer, and music director Alexander Gemignani.

Since opening her New York City studio in 1984, Page has maintained an active teaching practice in voice and acting. She was a founding faculty member of the Professional Musical Theatre Workshop at the Manhattan School of Music, a position she held from 1992 to 2010, and served on the voice faculty at New York University's Steinhardt School of Music from 1998 to 2002, where she also directed the Opera Theatre Workshop. She currently holds a faculty appointment at the Westminster College of the Arts at Rider University.