The Timothy Long Prize
Growing up in Oklahoma, Tim never knew a Native American person who excelled in classical music. Then his undergraduate college, Oklahoma City University, invited the great Cherokee mezzo-soprano Barbara McAlister to visit as a guest artist. She and Tim immediately bonded and she became a member of his family.
With her extraordinary vision and ability to advocate for others, Barbara began a music program that is unique in the United States. Since her retirement from the stage, she has teamed with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma to offer free voice lessons to any of their citizens. She has influenced many young people and has been a gateway to the Tulsa Youth Opera for them to make their professional debuts.
I started this scholarship to honor the work and friendship between Barbara and Tim. It provides financial assistance for students’ pursuit of a musical career. The foundation’s hope is that we’re able to extend this to more Native nations in the coming years.
-Randy Plimpton
Tim and Barbara ca. 1990
Timothy Long
Timothy Long is a pianist and conductor of Muscogee, Thlopthlocco, and Choctaw descent who is Music Director of Opera at the Eastman School of Music. He was assistant conductor for three years at the Brooklyn Philharmonic and was subsequently named an associate conductor at the New York City Opera for two seasons.
Tim’s training as a pianist and multi-instrumentalist led to conducting engagements with such companies such as Boston Lyric Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Colorado, Utah Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, The Juilliard School, Yale Opera, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, the Prague Summer Nights Festival Orchestra, the Trondheim Sinfonietta, and off-Broadway with The New Group.
Tim has performed as a pianist and harpsichordist at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, National Sawdust, Jordan Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Herkules Hall in Munich, Dvořák Hall in Prague, La Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, the Mostly Modern Festival, the Moab Music Festival, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Caramoor Festival, and the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago. As a concerto soloist he has performed with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, the Lawton Philharmonic, the Beethoven Society Orchestra of Washington DC, the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute Orchestra, the Sociedad Filarmonica de Conciertos of Mexico City, the Oklahoma City University Orchestra, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Philharmonia, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
At City Opera Vancouver, Tim conducted the 2017 world premiere of Missing, a groundbreaking new work by Marie Clements and Brian Current about the 4,000 missing Indigenous women in Canada. In 2019, he conducted a Canadian tour of Missing with Pacific Opera Victoria, the Regina Symphony Orchestra, and the Prince George Symphony Orchestra. This extraordinary composition is the first opera to be sung in both the Gitxsan and English languages. Future performances include the World Premiere of How Bright the Sunlight by Anthony Davis and Joy Harjo with the Eastman Philharmonia, and the American Premiere of Missing at Anchorage Opera.
Tim has been on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, Opera America, American Lyric Theater, and the Urban Artist Initiative/NYC. He is an Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music.
Barbara McAlister
American dramatic mezzo-soprano Barbara McAlister, of Cherokee Indian heritage, began her operatic career as an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera Company and Central City Opera Company. After Santa Fe and Central City, she has gone on to perform with the The Washington Opera Company, Cherokee Heritage Center, Arizona Opera, San Diego Opera, Tulsa Opera, Florentine Opera, New York Grand Opera and Opera New England. Her music theater career began with Dallas summer musicals while in university.
Ms. McAlister’s international career was launched when she won the prestigious Loren Zachary Competition in Los Angeles. She was subsequently engaged to perform the dramatic mezzo-soprano repertoire in the opera houses of Passau, Koblenz, Bremerhaven, and Flensburg in Germany, as well as in Monte Carlo, Cannes, Modena, Ferrara, Paris, Lisbon and Hong Kong. She toured France with the New Bulgarian Opera as Ortrud in Lohengrin and returned the following year as the mezzo soloist in the Verdi Requiem. She was also the recipient of the NY Wagner Society Grant.
Ms. McAlister has been heard as a soloist in concert at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Weill Recital Hall, appearing with such prominent orchestras as the Houston Symphony, the Düsseldorf Symphony, and the Symphony in Ulm. She has given recitals for the Oklahoma State Arts Council Touring Program, singing opera arias and Native American songs in the Cherokee. She created the role of Qualla in Lindor Chlarsson’s opera Mountain Windsong, based on the Cherokee Trail of Tears. She played Selu in the Trail of Tears drama/musical at Tsa-la-gi outdoor amphitheater in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. "The power of her voice and presence elevates every scene in which she appears.” (Tulsa World).
Ms. McAlister has taught students the art of vocal performance. She is now giving back to students who have dreams of working in the performing arts industry. She helps students develop the confidence to sing in front of others. Furthermore, Ms. McAlister helps by connecting her students to their choice colleges, helping them with their vocal auditions, or providing the Timothy Long Prize.
Barbara has served the community in an outstanding way above and beyond her job. In recognition of her outstanding achievements and years of service to her community in her professional and voluntary activities, the City of Muskogee honors the 10th of March as “Barbara McAlister Day” each year
