CHS Distinguished Alumni
Margaret Ann McConnel Singer
Class of 1956
Margaret Ann McConnel Singer is an internationally
recognized musician. Ms. Singer was born in Crescent,
February 14, 1939 to John and Margaret Acton McConnel. She received her first piano instruction from Mrs.
Arthur Fleming in 1944 and played her first solo piano
recital at age ten assisted by Joan Booth Jones. Ms.
Singer's educational accomplishments at Crescent
include being Salutatorian of the High School, Class
of 1956.
Ms. Singer attended Inspiration Point Fine Arts Colony
for the first time in the summer of 1951 and continued attending regularly until 1957. As a result
of this camp, Ms. Singer accompanied more than 65
performances of Humperdink's "Hansel and Gretal"
throughout the southwest and in Chicago, as well as
other operas and recitals, and played the oboe in the
orchestra. Ms. Singer continued her education at
Oklahoma College for Women after graduation from CHS,
where she studied with Jacque Abram, Artist in
Residence. She graduated OCW in 1960. As a result of
winning the Bloch Memorial Award in 1960, she appeared
with the Oklahoma City Symphony, under the direction
of Guy Fraser Harrison.
A recipient of a Fulbright grant for further sudy at
the Royal Academy of Music, London, Ms. Singer was
awarded several prizes for solo playing with the
Academy orchestra during her time in London.
After returning to the USA, and settling in New York,
Ms. Singer served on the faculties of the
Diller-Quaile School of Music, Turtle Bay Music School,
and was engaged as Vocal Coach at the American Opera
Center at the Julliard School of Music. She served as
Assistant Conductor at the New York City Opera, Vocal
Music Director for the Rhode Island Festival of the
Arts, and was Head of the Apprentice Coach program at
the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood. Ms.
Singer served as Assistant Conductor at the San
Francisco Opera, and as Vocal Coach for the Merola
Opera Program in San Francisco. She was Music
Administrator of the Opera Company of Philadelphia,
did musical preparation for the Washington, D.C.
Opera, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Asolo Operain
Sarasota, Florida. During this time Ms. Singer played
solo recitals and appeared as accompanist with many
singers and instrumentalists, including appearances at
Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and in England,
Scotland, Italy, Luxembourg and Iceland. Ms. Singer
moved to Hannover, Germany in 1986, working for three
years as Coach with the Opera Company of Lower Saxony;
appearing there also as soloist with orchestra, and in
solo recitals and as accompanist. In 1989, she moved
to Karlsruhe, Germany to become Artistic Assistant to
Professor Ulf Hoelscher, Violinist at the State
Concervatory of Music. She worked during the school
holidays for the Canadian Opera Company, the
University of Miami (Florida) Summer School in
Salzburg, and the Carl Flesch Academy for Stings in
Baden-Baden.
Since October 2000, Ms. Singer is head of the Opera
Department, as guest professor at the Mozarteum, in
Salzburg, Austria. She commutes to Paris one day a
week to work with the Apprentice Coaches at the Paris
Opera, and two days a month working with the young
singers at the training program of the Opera of the
Rhine in Stasbourg.
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