Bio

Marilyn Horne's voice seems to start at the center of the earth and end in the ether. Combining power and flexibility, Horne set a new standard and expanded the repertoire for generations of mezzos to come. Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania in 1934, Marilyn Horne sang almost as soon as she cut baby teeth. At 20, she made an enduring if invisible impression by dubbing Dorothy Dandridge's singing voice in the movie Carmen Jones. In 1956, under the guidance of Robert Craft and Igor Stravinsky, she appeared at the Venice Festival, and soon after joined Germany's Gelsenkirchen Municipal  Opera. She returned home in 1960, and made her San Francisco Opera debut as Marie in Wozzeck; a year later she made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Lora in the world premiere of Vittorio Giannini's The Harvest. Despite those successful 20th-century ventures, she quickly established herself worldwide as a brilliant bel canto interpreter, particularly in operas by Handel and Rossini, many of which she rescued from near obscurity. Equally celebrated and revered for her concert and recital singing, Marilyn Horne has graced virtually all of the great opera and concert stages of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala and Carnegie Hall. The winner of innumerable awards, including the National Medal of the Arts (1992) and the Kennedy Center Honors (1995), she has a second, equally important career as a teacher and guardian of the vocal recital. Through the Marilyn Horne Foundation, which she founded in 1994, young singers receive important training in the art of recital, as well as opportunities to perform.