Notable Black Memphians By Miriam DeCosta-Willis

After completing a bachelor’s degree in music, he enrolled in the opera program at the University of Michigan, where he studied voice with Willis Patterson and Czechoslovakian soprano Eva Likova. Just before completing a master’s degree, he auditioned for and won a role in the Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess, which toured Europe in 1978. When the tour ended, he returned to Memphis, studied voice with Ethel Taylor Maxwell, and served for two years as artist-in-residence with the Southern Opera Theater, before moving to St. Louis. For the next four and a half years, he studied voice with Edward Zambara at the St. Louis Conservatory.

In 1984, Albert went to Paris to study and perform, after winning a major prize in the Concours de Chant de Paris. He toured Germany with the Kaiserslautern Platztheater, and, in 1987, returned to Paris to assume a demanding schedule of concerts, recitals, and operatic performances. Later, he worked to elevate the range of his voice, moving from bass to baritone, because, as he pointed out, “baritone roles better suit my personality than those of stoic bass roles.” The vocal transition took three years to accomplish, and it is significant that his first attempt at the Italian baritone repertoire took place in Memphis. In October 1995, Albert played the title role in the Opera Memphis production of Rigoletto, performing at the Orpheum and Germantown Performing Arts Center. A 1992 convert to Buddhism, he has added Negro spirituals to his repertoire, because of “the incredible strength of emotional and spiritual values Black people have exhibited in overcoming many negative forces.” In a career that spans three decades, he has won acclaim in Europe and the United States. He has sung with the Paris Opera Company and with the Strasbourg, Nancy, and Kaisersalutem Opera Companies in Germany. In this country, he has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Nashville Opera, and Opera Memphis. In September 2005, he appeared with the Memphis Symphony Opera in a free concert to raise money for musicians victimized by Hurricane Katrina, and he made his Memphis Symphony Orchestra debut in January 2006.