Carey, Thomas
Biographical Note
Baritone concert singing artist, voice teacher, director, and professor of music, Thomas Devore Carey, established the Cimarron Circuit Opera Company (CCOC) with his wife Carol Brice, as a vehicle for young aspiring artists. Carey’s distinguished career as a baritone concert singer, beginning in the 1950’s, witnessed the increased opportunities and recognition of Black vocal artists.
Thomas Devore Carey was born on December 29, 1931, in Bennettville, South Carolina, to Ernest Govan and Beatrice Devore Carey. After serving in the United States Army for two years (1951-1953), Carey attended New York City College and the Henry Street Settlement Music School (1954-1960). While there he studied voice under Lola Urbach and Rose Bampton, vocals with Felix Popper and Ilse Sass, theatrics, piano and opera under Robert Egan, Harvey Wedeen and Adelaide Bishop. In 1957, Carey debuted at Town Hall in New York City. A year later Carey performed the leading role in the music school’s opera production of Wolf-Ferrori’s School for Fathers and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. His many appearances and his genial attitude made him a favorite of audiences throughout New York City.
Carey received many rewards which spanned over a decade. In 1957, he won the Concert Artist Guild Award and was the recipient of the Rose Bampton Music Award. Carey won the prestigious John Hay Whitney Foundation Award to continue his studies in Europe. He also received awards such as the Marian Anderson Award (1958-1961), the Walter M. Sullivan Award (1960), the Rockefeller Award (1962-1964), and many others.
During his tenure abroad, Carey sang and performed with great success under the baton of many eminent conductors in Europe, Spain, Germany, Italy Sweden, Norway, Portugal and Yugoslovia. With his remarkable and magnificent baritone voice, Carey sang show music to spirituals. In 1968, during a four-month engagement in the opera houses in France, Carey met and performed with his future wife, Carol Brice. The couple married on December 27, 1969. That same year, Thomas Carey became Associate Professor of Music at the University of Oklahoma. His wife joined the faculty as a music teacher four years later.
As a visionary, Carey dreamed of opening an opera house in Oklahoma for young aspiring artists. In the Spring of 1975, his dream became a reality as he and his wife Carol established the Church Circuit Opera Company, later renamed the Cimarron Circuit Opera Company. Their vision for the opera house included providing Oklahoma’s young singers and performers a forum for their talents and an opportunity to gain the valuable stage experience necessary to forge professional careers. Carey wanted Oklahomans to enjoy first-rate operatic and concert performances locally and as a community experience.
In 1975, the Cirmarron Circuit Opera Company presented its first opera, The Magic Flute Other operas included: Sister Angelia, Gianni, Schicch, Martha, Cosi fan tutte, Julius Ceasar, Madame Butterfly, and opera A La Carte. In 1987, Carey directed and performed his version of Little Red Riding Hood, an opera for children. He also adapted similar children stories for his operas, including Hansel and Gretel, Betsy from Pike, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Throughout his career, Carey performed worldwide, singing the role of “Porgy” and “Sportin Life” with the Belguim Symphony Orchestra; appearing as “Absolom” in the German Premiere, Lost in the Stars (1963); “Joe” in the London production of Show Boat (1971); and the role of “Porgy” in the performance of Porgy and Bess at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera and also in Atlanta (1974).
Thomas Devore Carey died in 2002.