A contralto is the lowest female singing voice, richer and deeper than the higher voices most women have. While sopranos sing the high, bright notes and mezzo-sopranos sit in the middle range, contraltos possess a warm, velvety sound in the lower registers that can feel almost like a male voice in its depth and power.

True contraltos are quite rare. In a school choir of fifty girls, you might find only one or two genuine contraltos, while most will be sopranos or mezzo-sopranos. This rarity makes contraltos special in choral music: they anchor the lower parts, providing a foundation that supports all the other voices above them.

Famous contralto roles in opera include witches, wise women, and other characters whose vocal depth matches their dramatic gravity. Marian Anderson, the groundbreaking American contralto who sang at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, had a voice so magnificent that conductor Arturo Toscanini said a voice like hers comes along “once in a hundred years.”

In choir music, contraltos typically sing the alto part, though technically alto can refer to any low female voice, while contralto specifically describes this deepest, rarest vocal type.