Helping Students Shine
CMU alumna Christiane Noll inspires students to connect with their creative passion
By Pamela Wigley
After 35 years in the entertainment industry, Carnegie Mellon alumna Christiane Noll is looking back with satisfaction, and giving forward as a member of the Andrew Carnegie Society.
Her expansive catalog of work as an actress, singer and performer includes theater, concerts, cabarets and recordings including, most recently, the role of Cynthia Murphy in “Dear Evan Hansen” on Broadway, the role she also performed in the production’s first national touring company.
During her career, she originated the roles of Emma in “Jekyll & Hyde,” Vanna Vane in “The Mambo Kings,” Jane Smart in “The Witches of Eastwick,” and Elizabeth Lavenza in “Frankenstein — A New Musical.” She’s received numerous awards and accolades for her work, including a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her role as Mother in “Ragtime.”
She frequently performs Broadway favorites in concert and has been a guest soloist with orchestras and symphonies around the world. She also performs a solo cabaret show and has released five solo CDs of her work.
In between work engagements, Christiane focuses on family and preparing the next generation of vocalists by teaching voice lessons via Zoom. She currently has about 10 students and appreciates the opportunity to teach while remaining active in the profession.
“Actors never retire,” says Christiane, a 1990 College of Fine Arts graduate with a bachelor’s degree in music performance. “They get more selective in what they do. I’m here to connect students to themselves and their gifts — whether they are choosing to have a theater career or not.”
Christiane supports students in other ways as well.
She has made gifts to Carnegie Mellon nearly every year since her 1990 graduation, first achieving Andrew Carnegie Society membership in 1997. She also created an award in honor of Charlotte Black, her voice teacher at CMU who Christiane says helped plant the seeds of healthy singing and inspired her creative passion.
“[Charlotte] would say, ‘Tell us a story with your voice and your acting,’” Christiane says. “She also showed us that some people made it in the business and some didn’t. We needed to see that — to see that we played a part in our own futures.”
Less than a year after graduating, Noll landed the first national tour of “City of Angels” and then immediately went to the first national company of “Miss Saigon” in Chicago. While experiencing this run of luck and good fortune, Christiane says, “my dear voice teacher, mentor and friend, Charlotte Black, was deteriorating due to a battle with cancer.”
Upon Black’s passing, she felt very strongly about honoring her memory, her teaching and her impact. She created the Charlotte Black Memorial Award to support students majoring in voice in the School of Music.
“I wanted a monetary award to go to a junior student who had overcome something during their time at CMU,” Christiane says. “Charlotte taught many students who were not the immediate stars of the department, more like ‘diamonds in the rough.’ I wanted to recognize those students.”
She’s heard from award recipients through the years via letters of gratitude and met one of the recipients while teaching a master class at CMU. Another introduced themselves at the stage door of Heinz Hall during the Pittsburgh stop of the “Dear Evan Hansen” tour.
“Honoring an important teacher is a wonderful way to contribute to and support hard-working students,” Christiane says. “I am very proud of my ability to do so and encourage others to help in a similar way.”
