Kathleen Battle (born August 13, 1948), is an African American operatic soprano known for her agile and light voice and her silvery, pure tone. Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid 1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into light lyric soprano and lyric coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s. Although she no longer appears in operas, Battle remains active in concert and recital performances.

Life and career

Early years and musical education

Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, USA, the youngest of seven children. Her father was a steelworker, and her mother was an active participant in the gospel music of the family's African Methodist Episcopal church. Battle attended Portsmouth High School where her music teacher and mentor was Charles P. (Phil) Varney. In a ''Time Magazine'' interview with music critic Michael Walsh, he recalled first hearing the eight-year old Battle sing, describing her as "this tiny little thing singing so beautifully." "I went to her later", Varney recalled, "and told her God had blessed her, and she must always sing." In that same interview, Walsh described Battle as "the best lyric coloratura in the world".

Battle was a good student and was awarded a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she studied voice with Franklin Bens and also worked with Italo Tajo. She majored in music education rather than performance in undergraduate school and went on to get a master's degree in Music Education as well. In 1971 Battle embarked on a teaching career in Cincinnati, taking a position at a Cincinnati inner-city public school. While teaching 5th and 6th grade music, she continued to study voice privately.

1970s

In 1972, her second year as a teacher, a friend and fellow church choir member phoned her and informed her that the conductor Thomas Schippers was holding auditions in Cincinnati. At her audition Schippers engaged her to sing as the soprano soloist in Brahms' ''Ein deutsches Requiem'' at the 1972 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Her performance there on July 9, 1972 marked the beginning of her professional career. During the next several years, Battle would go on to sing in several more orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. In 1973 she was awarded a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music to support her career. William Mullen, managing director of the Santa Fe Concert Association was on the panel of judges who made the award. In 2004 he recalled:

"We would meet monthly, listen to up-and-coming concert artists and give money to deserving artists for further study. A very young Kathleen Battle sang for us. The other judges thought her voice was too small, but I thought she had an incredible ability to communicate through music. I talked the other judges into giving her a grant."

Thomas Schippers introduced Kathleen Battle to his fellow conductor James Levine who selected Battle to sing the ''Mater Glorioso'' in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Cincinnati Symphony's May Festival in 1974. This was the beginning of a friendship and close professional association between Battle and Levine that would last for years and resulted in several recordings and performances in recital and concert performances, including engagements in Salzburg, Ravinia, and Carnegie Hall. Battle made her professional operatic debut in 1975 as Rosina in Rossini's ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' with the Michigan Opera Theatre. She made her New York City Opera debut the following year as Susanna in Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro'', and in 1977 made both her San Francisco Opera debut as Oscar in Verdi's ''Un ballo in maschera'' and her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Shepherd in Wagner's ''Tannhäuser''. The latter performance was conducted by James Levine. Battle made her Glyndebourne Festival debut (and UK debut) singing Nerina in Haydn's ''La fedeltà premiata'' in 1979.

1980s

Throughout the 1980s, Battle performed in recitals, choral works and opera. Her work continued to take her to performance venues around the world. In 1980 she made her Zürich Opera debut as Adina in Donizetti's ''L'elisir d'amore''. In 1982, she made her Salzburg Festival debut in ''Così fan tutte'', followed three days later by an appearance in one of the Festival's ''Mozart Matinee'' concerts. In 1985, she was the soprano soloist in Mozart's ''Coronation Mass'' at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That same year she made her Royal Opera debut as Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos''. In 1987 Karajan invited Battle to sing Johann Strauss' ''Voices of Spring'' for the Vienna New Year's Day concert, the only time Karajan conducted the internationally televised annual event, and the first time a singer had been engaged for such a contribution. In opera she sang a variety of roles including Oscar at Chicago Lyric Opera and a highly acclaimed Semele at Carnegie Hall. She returned to Salzburg various times to sing Susanna, Zerlina, and Despina, Mozart roles which she also sang at several other opera houses during that period. Battle became an established artist at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s, singing over 150 performances with the company in 13 different operas, including the Met's first ever production of Handel's ''Giulio Cesare''. Other opera houses where she performed included San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Vienna State Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

During this period, she received three Grammy awards for her recordings: ''Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart'' (1986), ''Salzburg Recital'' (1987), and ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (1987). She also received the Laurence Olivier Award (1985) for her stage performance as Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' at the Royal Opera House, London. Critical response to Battle's performances had rarely varied throughout the years following her debut. In 1985, ''Time Magazine'', pronounced her "the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world".

1990s

The 1990s saw projects ranging from a concert program and a CD devoted to spirituals to a recording of baroque music, from performances of complete operas to recitals and recordings with jazz musicians.

In 1990, Battle and Jessye Norman performed a program of spirituals at Carnegie Hall with James Levine conducting. In the same year, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Norina in ''Don Pasquale'' and performed in a series of solo recitals in California, as well as appearing at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic". Battle's Carnegie Hall solo recital debut came on April 27, 1991 as part of the hall's Centennial Festival. Accompanied by pianist Margo Garrett, she sang arias and songs by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin and Richard Strauss as well as several traditional spirituals. The contralto, Marian Anderson, who had ended her farewell tour with a recital at Carnegie Hall in April 1965, was in the audience that night as Battle dedicated Rachmaninoff's "In the Silence of the Secret Night" to her. The recording of the recital earned Battle her fourth Grammy award. Another first came in January 1992 when Battle premiered André Previn's song cycle ''Honey and Rue'' with lyrics by Nobel Laureate in Literature Toni Morrison. The work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and composed specifically for Battle.

In December 1993 she was joined by Martin Katz and Kenny Barron on piano and Grady Tate (drums), Grover Washington, Jr. (saxophone) and David Williams (bass) at Carnegie Hall for a concert featuring the music of Handel, Haydn, and Duke Ellington as well as Christmas spirituals. During this time she also collaborated with other musicians including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in a recording of baroque arias entitled, ''Baroque Duet''; violinist Itzhak Perlman on an album of Bach arias; and flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal for a recital at Alice Tully Hall (also released on CD). In May 1993 Battle added pop music to her repertoire with the release of Janet Jackson's album ''janet.'' lending her vocals to the song, ''This Time''. An album of Japanese melodies, ''First Love'', followed in November 1993.

On the opera stage, she performed in a variety of Mozart, Rossini, and Donizetti operas, and made her role debut as Marie in Donizetti's ''La fille du régiment'' at San Francisco Opera (1993). Between 1990 and 1993, she performed in several productions at the Metropolitan Opera: Rosina in ''Il barbiere di Siviglia'' (1990), Pamina in ''Die Zauberflöte'' (1991 and 1993), and Adina (with Pavarotti as Nemorino) in ''L'elisir d'amore'' (1991, 1992, and the Met's 1993 Japan Tour). She also won her fifth Grammy Award in 1993, singing the title role of ''Semele'' on the Deutsche Grammophon recording conducted by John Nelson.

Although Battle gave several critically praised performances at the Metropolitan Opera during the early 1990s, her relationship with the company's management showed increasing signs of strain during those years. As Battle's status grew, so did her reputation for being difficult and demanding. In October 1992 "when Miss Battle opened the Boston Symphony Orchestra season, she reportedly banned an assistant conductor and other musicians from her rehearsals, changed hotels several times, and left behind what a report in ''The Boston Globe'' called 'a froth of ill will.'" In February 1994, during rehearsals for an upcoming production of ''La fille du régiment'', Battle was said to have subjected her fellow performers to "withering criticism" and made "almost paranoid demands that they not look at her." General Manager Joseph Volpe responded by dismissing Battle from the production for "unprofessional actions" during rehearsals. Volpe called Battle's conduct "profoundly detrimental to the artistic collaboration among all the cast members" and indicated that he had "canceled all offers that have been made for the future." Battle was replaced in ''La fille du régiment'' by Harolyn Blackwell. At the time of her termination from the Met, Michael Walsh of ''Time'' magazine reported that "the cast of ''The Daughter of the Regiment'' applauded when it was told during rehearsal that Battle had been fired."

In a statement released by her management company, Columbia Artists, Battle said: "I was not told by anyone at the Met about any unprofessional actions. To my knowledge, we were working out all of the artistic problems in the rehearsals, and I don't know the reason behind this unexpected dismissal. All I can say is I am saddened by this decision." Since then, Battle has not performed in opera.

For the remainder of the decade, she worked extensively in the recording studio and on the concert stage. She was a featured guest artist on the May 1994 album ''Tenderness'', singing a duet, ''My Favorite Things'', with Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Al Jarreau. In 1995 she presented a program of opera arias and popular songs at Lincoln Center with baritone Thomas Hampson, conductor John Nelson, and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. She also released two albums in 1995: ''So Many Stars'' a collection of folk songs, lullabies, and spirituals (with accompanying live concert performances) with Christian McBride and Grover Washington, Jr. (with whom she had performed in Carnegie Hall the previous year; and ''Angels' Glory,'' a Christmas album with guitarist Christopher Parkening, a frequent collaborator. In 1997 came the release of the albums ''Mozart Opera Arias'' and ''Grace'', a collection of sacred songs. In October 1998, she joined jazz pianist Herbie Hancock on his album ''Gershwin's World'' in the Ravel's ''Prelude In C# Minor''. December 1999 saw the release of ''Fantasia 2000'' where she is the featured soprano in Elgar's ''Pomp and Circumstance'' performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by long-time collaborator James Levine. In solo recitals she performed in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago in programs that featured art songs from a variety of eras and regions, opera arias, and spirituals.

2000 – present

Battle has continued to pursue a number of diverse projects including the works of composers who are not associated with traditional classical music, performing the works of Vangelis, Stevie Wonder, and George Gershwin.

In August 2000, she performed an all-Schubert program at Ravinia. In June 2001, she and frequent collaborator soprano Jessye Norman, performed Vangelis' ''Mythodea'' at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Greece. In July 2003 she performed at the Ravinia Chicago Symphony Orchestra Gala with Bobby McFerrin and Denyce Graves. In 2006 she and James Ingram sang the song ''They Won't Go When I Go'' in a Tribute to Stevie Wonder and she began including Wonder's music in her recitals. In July 2007 she debuted at the Aspen Music Festival performing an all-Gershwin program as part of a season benefit. In October 2007, at a fundraiser for the Keep a Child Alive Charity, Kathleen Battle and Alicia Keys performed the song ''Miss Sarajevo'' written by U2's Bono.

On April 16, 2008, she sang an arrangement of The Lord's Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI on the occasion of his Papal State visit to the White House. This marks the second time she sang for a pope. (She first sang for Pope John Paul II in 1985 as soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass.)

On November 23, 2008, she performed "Superwoman" on the American Music Awards with Alicia Keys and Queen Latifah.

On February 8, 2010, she performed at Carnegie Hall in a piano-accompanied recital of works by Schubert, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff.

Major debuts

Professional debut: soprano soloist in Brahms' ''Ein Deutsches Requiem'', Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto, Italy, July 9, 1972.

Broadway debut: Treemonisha in Scott Joplin's ''Treemonisha'' (Gunther Schuller, Conductor), (Wednesday and Saturday matinee performances), Uris Theatre, New York City, October 1975.

Operatic debut: Rosina in ''The Barber of Seville'', Michigan Opera Theatre, 1975.

New York City Opera company debut: Susanna in ''The Marriage of Figaro, 1976.

San Francisco Opera company debut: Oscar in ''Un ballo in maschera'' (Kurt Herbert Adler, Conductor), November 12, 1977. Metropolitan Opera company debut: Shepherd in ''Tannhäuser'' (James Levine, Conductor), December 22, 1977. UK debut and Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut: Nerina in ''La fedeltà premiata'', July 15, 1979. Salzburg Festival debut and Salzburg opera debut: Despina in ''Così fan tutte'' (Ricardo Muti, Conductor), July 28, 1982. Salzburg Festival solo recital debut: August 25, 1984. Royal Opera, London company debut: Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', June 17, 1985. Carnegie Hall solo recital debut: April 27, 1991.

In recital, she has been accompanied on the piano by various accompanists including Margo Garrett, Martin Katz, Warren Jones, James Levine, Joel Martin, Ken Noda, Sandra Rivers, Howard Watkins, Dennis Helmrich, JJ Penna, and Ted Taylor. Collaborations with other classical artists include flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, soprano Jessye Norman, mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Florence Quivar, violinist Itzhak Perlman, baritone Thomas Hampson, tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and guitarist Christopher Parkening.

On the less classical side, she has worked with vocalists Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, Alicia Keys, and James Ingram, jazz saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., jazz pianists Cyrus Chestnut and Herbie Hancock. Battle also lent voice to the song "This Time" on Janet Jackson's album ''janet.'' and sang the title song, "Lovers", for the 2004 Chinese action movie, ''House of Flying Daggers''. She also performs the music of Stevie Wonder.

Awards and honors

Grammy, ''Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance'' for Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart, 1986. Grammy, ''Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance'' for Salzburg Recital, 1987. Grammy, ''Best Opera Recording'' for Richard Strauss: ''Ariadne Auf Naxos'', 1987. Laurence Olivier Award, ''Best Performance in a New Opera Production'' for Zerbinetta in ''Ariadne auf Naxos'', Royal Opera, London, 1985. Grammy, ''Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance'' for ''Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall'' (Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Strauss, etc.), 1992. Emmy, ''Outstanding Individual Achievement – Classical Music/Dance Programming – Performance'' for the Metropolitan Opera Silver Anniversary Gala, 1992. Grammy, ''Best Opera Recording'' for Handel: ''Semele'', 1993. Battle is the recipient of six honorary doctorates from American universities. They include: the University of Cincinnati, Westminster Choir College, Ohio University, Xavier University, Amherst College, and Seton Hall University. ''NAACP Image Award - Hall of Fame Award'', 1999.

References

Sources

Richard Dyer, Elizabeth Forbes: "Kathleen Battle", ''Grove Music Online'' ed. L. Macy (Accessed September 21, 2008), (subscription access)

Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), ''The Oxford Dictionary of Opera'', 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5

External links

Official web site

Kathleen Battle at Columbia Artists Management

Discography at Sony/BMG Masterworks

Jazz from Lincoln Center, Kathleen Battle – Wynton Marsalis: So Many Stars Concert Battle discusses spirituals and joins other musicians singing spirituals and Duke Ellington's, ''Come Sunday''.

Category:African American female singers Category:American female singers Category:African American opera singers Category:American opera singers Category:American sopranos Category:Operatic sopranos Category:Soubrettes Category:People from Portsmouth, Ohio Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Olivier Award winners Category:1948 births Category:Living people

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Jessye Norman (born September 15, 1945) is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music. A dramatic soprano, Norman is associated in particular with the roles of Aida, Cassandre, Alceste, and Leonore.

Life and career

Early life and musical education

Jessye Mae Norman was born on September 15, 1945 in Augusta, Georgia to Silas Norman, an insurance salesman, and Janie King-Norman, a school teacher. She was one of five children in a family of amateur musicians; her mother and grandmother were both pianists, her father a singer in a local choir. Norman's mother insisted that she start piano lessons at an early age. Norman attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, A.R. Johnson Junior High School, and Lucy C. Laney Senior High School, all in downtown Augusta.

Norman proved to be a talented singer as a young child, singing gospel songs at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at the age of four. At the age of nine, Norman heard opera for the first time on the radio and was immediately an opera fan. She started listening to recordings of Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price whom Norman credits as being inspiring figures in her career. At the age of 16, Norman entered the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition in Philadelphia which, although she did not win, led to her being offered a full scholarship to Howard University, in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, Norman sang in the university chorus and as a professional soloist at the Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ, while studying voice with Carolyn Grant. In 1965, along with 32 other female students and 4 female faculty, she became a founding member of the Delta Nu Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota. In 1966, she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. After graduating in 1967 with a degree in music, she began graduate-level studies at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and later at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from which she earned a Masters Degree in 1968. During this time Norman studied voice with Elizabeth Mannion and Pierre Bernac.

Early career (1969–1979)

After graduating, Norman, like many young musicians at the time, moved to Europe to establish herself. In 1969 she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and landed a three-year contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She made her operatic début that same year as Elisabeth in Richard Wagner's ''Tannhäuser'' at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Critics at the time described Norman as having "the greatest voice since the German soprano Lotte Lehmann."

In subsequent years Norman performed with various German and Italian opera companies appearing often as princesses or other noble figures. Norman was exceptional at portraying a commanding and noble bearing. This ability was partly due to her uncommon height and size, but more so as a result of her unique, rich, and powerful voice. Norman's range was uncommonly wide, encompassing all female voice registers from contralto to high dramatic soprano. In 1970 she made her Italian début in Florence in Handel's ''Deborah''. In 1971, Norman made her début at the Maggio Musicale in Florence appearing as Sélica in Meyerbeer's ''L'Africaine''. That year she also sang the role of Countess Almaviva in Mozart's ''The Marriage of Figaro'' at the Berlin Festival and recorded the role that same year with the BBC Orchestra under the direction of Colin Davis. The recording was a finalist for the Montreux International Record Award competition and brought Norman much exposure to music listeners in Europe and the United States.

In 1972, Norman debuted at La Scala, where she sang the title role in Verdi's ''Aida'' and at London's Royal Opera at Covent Garden, where she sang the role of Cassandra in Berlioz's ''Les Troyens''. Norman appeared as Aida again in a concert version that same year in her first well-publicized American performance at the Hollywood Bowl. This was followed by an all-Wagner concert at the Tanglewood Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts, and a recital tour of the country, after which Norman went back to Europe for several engagements. Norman returned to the US briefly to make her first-ever New York City recital where she appeared as part of the "Great Performers" series at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center in 1973.

In 1975 Norman moved to London and had no staged opera appearances for the next five years. While she gave as the reason for her withdrawal the need to fully develop her voice, others felt that this was a period of concern for her weight and thus her stage image. However, Norman remained internationally active as a recitalist and soloist in works such as Mendelssohn's ''Elijah'' and Franck's ''Les Béatitudes''. Norman returned to North America again in 1976 and 1977 to make an extensive concert tour, but it was not until many years later that she would make her US Opera début or appear frequently in the United States. Only after Norman had established herself in Europe's leading opera houses and festivals—including the Edinburgh Festival, Salzburg Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, and the Stuttgart Opera—did Norman set out to establish herself in the United States. Norman toured Europe throughout the 1970s, giving recitals of works by Schubert, Mahler, Wagner, Brahms, Satie, Messiaen, and several contemporary American composers, to great critical acclaim.

Mid-career (1980–89)

In October 1980 Norman returned to the operatic stage in the title role of Richard Strauss's ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' at the Hamburg State Opera in Germany. Norman made her United States opera début in 1982 with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, appearing in Stravinsky's ''Oedipus Rex'' as Jocasta and in Purcell's ''Dido and Aeneas'' as Dido. Norman followed these with her début at the Metropolitan Opera in 1983, appearing in Berlioz's ''Les Troyens'' as both Cassandra and Dido, a production which marked the company's 100th anniversary season. According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "By the mid-1980s she was one of the most popular and highly regarded dramatic soprano singers in the world." She was invited to sing at the second inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan on January 21, 1985, an invitation which she debated accepting, as an African American and a Democrat (as well as a nuclear disarmament activist). In the end, she did accept and sang the folk song "Simple Gifts". In 1986, Norman sang at Elizabeth II's sixtieth birthday celebration. That same year Norman appeared as a soloist in Strauss's ''Four Last Songs'' with the Berlin Philharmonic during its tour of the USA. In 1987, Norman joined the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Herbert von Karajan in possibly the greatest rendition of the Liebestod from "Tristan und Isolde" by Wagner in a historical concert (filmed and recorded audio by Deutsche Grammophone) at the Salzburg Festival. The concert was then repeated some weeks later in Berlin, with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic.

Over the years Norman has not been afraid to expand her talent into less familiar areas. In 1988 she sang a concert performance of Poulenc's one-act opera ''La Voix Humaine'' ("The Human Voice"), based on Jean Cocteau's 1930 play of the same name. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Norman produced numerous award-winning recordings, and many of her performances were televised. In addition to opera, many of Norman's recordings and performances during this time focused upon art songs, lieder, oratorios, and orchestral works. Her interpretation of Strauss's ''Four Last Songs'' is especially acclaimed. Its slowness is controversial, but the tonal qualities of her voice are ideal for these final works of the Romantic German lieder tradition.

Norman is also known for the ''Gurre-Lieder'' of Arnold Schoenberg and for Schoenberg's one-woman opera ''Erwartung''. In 1989 Norman appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for a performance of ''Erwartung'' that marked the company's first single-character production. This opera was presented in a double bill with Bartók's ''Bluebeard's Castle'' with Norman playing the role of Judith. Both operas were broadcast nationally. That same year, Norman was the featured soloist with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in its opening concert of its 148th season, which was telecast live to the nation by PBS. Norman also performed at the Hong Kong Cultural Center opening and gave a recital at Taiwan's National Concert Hall.

Also in 1989, Norman was invited to sing the French national anthem, ''La Marseillaise,'' to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14. Her rendition was delivered at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, in a costume designed by Azzedine Alaïa as part of an elaborate pageant orchestrated by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Goude.

Later career (1990–present)

Since the early 1990s Norman has lived in Croton-on-Hudson, New York in a secluded estate known as "The White Gates" which she purchased from television personality Allen Funt. In 1990, Norman performed at Tchaikovsky's 150th Birthday Gala in Leningrad and she made her Lyric Opera of Chicago début in the title role of Gluck's ''Alceste''. In 1991 Norman sang for the 700th Celebration Party of Swiss National Day. That same year, she performed in a concert recorded live with Lawrence Foster and the Lyon Opera Orchestra amid the tantalizing acoustics at Paris's Notre Dame cathedral. In 1992 Norman sang Jocasta in Stravinsky's ''Oedipus rex'' at the opening operatic production at the new Saito Kinen Festival in the Japanese Alps near Matsumoto. In 1993, Norman sang the title role in the Metropolitan Opera's production of ''Ariadne auf Naxos''. In 1994, Norman sang at the funeral of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In September 1995, she was again the featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, this time under Kurt Masur's direction, in a gala concert telecast live to the nation by PBS making the opening of the orchestra's 153rd season. In 1996 Norman gave a highly lauded performance as the title character in the Metropolitan Opera's premier production of Janáček's ''The Makropulos Case''.

Starting in the mid 1990s, Norman began to move away from soprano stage-roles migrating heavily toward mezzo soprano roles. In January 1997, Norman performed at the second inauguration of U.S. President Bill Clinton. Jessye Norman's 1998–1999 performances included a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York City, which had an unusual program incorporating sacred music of Duke Ellington, scored for jazz combo, string quartet and piano, and featuring the Alvin Ailey Repertory Dance Ensemble. Other performances during the season included ''Das Lied von der Erde'', with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a television special for Christmas filmed in her home town of Augusta, Georgia, as well as a spring recital tour, which included performances in Tel Aviv. The following season also brought performances of the sacred music of Duke Ellington to London and Vienna, together with a summer European tour, which included performances at the Salzburg Festival.

In 1999 Norman collaborated with choreographer-dancer Bill T. Jones in a project for New York City's Lincoln Center, called "How! Do! We! Do!" In 2000, Norman later released an album, ''I Was Born in Love with You'', featuring the songs of Michel Legrand. The recording, reviewed as a jazz crossover project, featured Legrand on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Grady Tate on drums. In February and March 2001, Norman was featured at Carnegie Hall in a three-part concert series. With James Levine as her pianist, the concerts were a significant arts event, replete with an 80-page program booklet featuring a newly commissioned watercolor portrait of Norman by David Hockney. In 2002, Norman performed at the opening of Singapore's Esplanade Theatres on the bay.

On March 11, 2002, Norman performed "America the Beautiful" at a memorial service unveiling two monumental columns of light at the site of the former World Trade Center, as a memorial for the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City. In 2002 she returned to Augusta to announce that she would fund a pilot school of the arts for children in Richmond County. Classes commenced at St. John United Methodist Church in the fall of 2003. In November 2004, a documentary of Miss Norman's life and work to date, was created. This film, directed by André Heller, with Othmar Schmiderer as director of photography and produced by DOR-FILM of Vienna, chronicles the music, the social and political issues, the inspiration and dreams that have combined to make this singer unique in her profession. In 2006, Norman collaborated with the modern dance choreographer, Trey McIntyre, for a special performance during the summer at the Vail, Colorado Dance Festival.

In March 2009, Ms. Norman curated ''Honor!'', a celebration of the African American cultural legacy. The festival honors the courageous African American trailblazers and artists of the past with concerts, recitals, lectures, panel discussions, and exhibitions hosted by Carnegie Hall, the Apollo Theater, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and other sites around New York City.

After more than thirty years on stage, Norman no longer performs ensemble opera, concentrating instead on recitals and concerts. In addition to her busy performance schedule, Jessye Norman serves on the Boards of Directors for Carnegie Hall, the New York Public Library, the New York Botanical Garden, City-Meals-on-Wheels in New York City, Dance Theatre of Harlem, National Music Foundation, and Elton John AIDS Foundation. She is a member of the board as well as National spokesperson for the LUPUS Foundation, and spokesperson for Partnership for the Homeless. And in her home town of Augusta, Georgia, she serves on the Board of Trustees of Paine College and the Augusta Opera Association.

Opera roles

These are notable opera roles that Norman has performed. :* Aïda, ''Aïda'' (Verdi) :* Alceste, ''Alceste'' (Gluck) :* Ariadne, ''Ariadne auf Naxos'' (Richard Strauss) :* Armida, ''Armida'' (Haydn) :* Carmen, ''Carmen'' (Bizet) :* Cassandre, ''Les Troyens'' (Berlioz) :* Countess Almaviva, ''The Marriage of Figaro'' (Mozart) :* Dido, ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Purcell) :* Donna Elvira, ''Don Giovanni'' (Mozart) :* Elisabeth, ''Tannhäuser'' (Wagner) :* Elle, ''La voix humaine'' (Poulenc) :* Elsa, ''Lohengrin'' (Wagner) :* Emilia Marty, ''The Makropulos Affair'' (Janáček) :* Giulietta, ''The Tales of Hoffman'' (Offenbach) :* Hélène, ''La belle Hélène'' (Offenbach) :* Idamante, ''Idomeneo'' (Mozart) :* Isolde, ''Tristan und Isolde'' (Wagner) (Act II in Concert) :* Jocasta, ''Oedipus rex'' (Stravinsky) :* Judith, ''Bluebeard's Castle'' (Bartók) :* Kundry, ''Parsifal'' (Wagner) :* Giulietta di Kelbar, ''Un giorno di regno'' (Verdi) :* Leonore, ''Fidelio'' (Beethoven) :* Madame Lidoine, ''Dialogues of the Carmelites'' (Poulenc) :* Marguerite, ''La damnation de Faust'' (Berlioz) :* Medora, ''Il Corsaro'' (Verdi) :* Pénélope, ''Pénélope'' (Fauré) :* Phedra, ''Hippolyte et Aricie'' (Rameau) :* Rosina, ''La vera costanza'' (Haydn) :* Salome, ''Salome'' (Richard Strauss) :* Salome, ''Hérodiade'' (Massenet) :* Santuzza, ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (Pietro Mascagni) :* Sélica, ''L'Africaine'' (Meyerbeer) :* Sieglinde, ''Die Walküre'' (Wagner) :* Third Norn, ''Götterdämmerung'' (Wagner) :* Woman, ''Erwartung'' (Schoenberg)

Oratorio and orchestral parts performed

These are among the notable oratorio and orchestral parts that Norman has performed. :* (Beethoven), Missa solemnis :* (Beethoven), Symphony No. 9 in D minor, soloist :* (Alban Berg), ''Der Wein'' :* (Alban Berg), ''Sieben frühe Lieder'', ''Altenberg Lieder'', Jugendlieder :* (Berlioz), ''Les Nuits d'été'' :* (Berlioz), ''La mort de Cléopâtre'', Cléopâtre :* (Berlioz), ''Romeo et Juliette'', Juliette :* (Brahms), Lieder :* (Brahms), A German Requiem :* (Brahms), Alto Rhapsody :* (Bruckner), Te Deum [and] Helgoland [and] 150 Psalm :* (Chausson), ''Poème de l'amour et de la mer'', op. 19 :* (Chausson), ''Chanson perpétuelle'', op. 37 :* (Debussy), ''L'Enfant prodigue'' [and] ''La damoiselle élue'' :* (Henri Duparc), Mélodies :* (César Franck), ''Les Béatitudes'' (oratorio) :* (Haendel), ''Deborah'', Deborah :* (Mahler), ''Das Lied von der Erde'' :* (Mahler), ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn'' :* (Mahler), ''Songs of a Wayfarer''. :* (Mahler), ''Kindertotenlieder''. :* (Mahler), Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection", soloist :* (Mahler), Symphony No. 3, soloist :* (Mozart), ''Die Gaertnerin aus Liebe'' :* (Francis Poulenc), Mélodies :* (Ravel), ''Shéhérazade'' :* (Ravel), ''Deux mélodies hébraïques'' :* (Ravel), ''Chansons madécasses'' :* (Erik Satie), Mélodies :* (Arnold Schoenberg), ''Gurrelieder'' :* (Arnold Schoenberg), ''Brettl-Lieder'' :* (Franz Schubert), Lieder :* (Franz Schubert), Erlkönig :* (Robert Schumann), ''Frauenliebe und Leben'', op. 42 :* (Robert Schumann), Liederkreis, op. 39 :* (Richard Strauss), ''Four Last Songs'' (Philips, 1983). :* (Richard Strauss), Lieder with piano :* (Michael Tippett), ''A Child of Our Time'' :* (Wagner), ''Wesendonck Lieder'' :* (Verdi), ''Requiem'' :* (Hugo Wolf), Lieder

Concert and recital work

Throughout her career, Norman has spent much of her time giving recitals and concerts and continues to do so today. In addition to her operatic recitals, Norman has given regular recitals encompassing the classical German repertory as well as contemporary masterpieces, such as Schoenberg's ''Gurre-Lieder'' and the French moderns, which she invariably performed in the original tongue.

This combination of scholarship and artistry contributed to her consistently successful career as one of the most versatile concert and operatic singers of her time. Often cited for her innovative programming and fervent advocacy of contemporary music, she has earned the recognition of "one of those once-in-a-generation singers who isn’t simply following in the footsteps of others, but is staking out her own niche in the history of singing."

Norman frequently collaborates with the world's best symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, and other classical solo artists in her recital work. She has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and Berlin Philharmonic to name a few.

Norman premiered the song cycle ''woman.life.song'' by composer Judith Weir, a work commissioned for her by Carnegie Hall, with texts by Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and Clarissa Pinkola Estés; performed a selection of sacred music of Duke Ellington; recorded a jazz album, ''Jessye Norman Sings Michel Legrand''; and was the soprano co-lead in Vangelis' project Mythodea.Norman commended herself in Mussorgsky's songs, which she performed in Moscow in the original Russian. Other of Norman's diverse projects have included her 1984 album, ''With a Song in My Heart'', which contains numbers from films and musical comedies, and a 1990 performance of American spirituals with soprano Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall.

Voice type

Norman is most often referred to as a dramatic soprano but unlike most dramatic sopranos, Norman has become known for roles more traditionally sung by other types of voices. From her student days Norman had been selective about her repertoire, heeding her own instincts and interests more than the advice of her teachers or requests of her management. In the beginning of her career, this tendency put her at odds with the Deutsche Opera and compelled her to seek out musical works on her own that she felt were more suitable to her vocal skills. Norman told John Gruen of the New York Times, "As for my voice, it cannot be categorized—and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range. I like so many different kinds of music that I've never allowed myself the limitations of one particular range."

Some vocal critics assert that Norman is not a dramatic soprano but has in fact a rare soprano voice type known as a Falcon. The Falcon voice is an intermediate voice type between the soprano and the mezzo soprano that is similar to the dramatic soprano but with a darker-color. Norman, however, refuses to place any labels on her voice. At the age of twenty-three, when asked by an interviewer in Germany, how she would characterize her voice, she replied that, "pigeonholes are only comfortable for pigeons."

Over the years Norman's technical expertise has been among her most critically praised attributes. In a review of one of her recitals at New York City's Carnegie Hall, New York Times contributor Allen Hughes wrote that Norman "has one of the most opulent voices before the public today, and, as discriminating listeners are aware, her performances are backed by extraordinary preparation, both musical and otherwise." Another Carnegie Hall appearance prompted these words from New York Times contributor Bernard Holland: "If one added up all the things that Jessye Norman does well as a singer, the total would assuredly exceed that of any other soprano before the public. At Miss Norman's recital ... tones were produced, colors manipulated, words projected and interpretive points made—all with fanatic finesse."

Lawsuits

In March 1984 Norman filed a 15 million dollar lawsuit (in Manhattan Supreme Court) against two Manhattan record stores, Mr. Tape and Town Records Store, for distributing unauthorized recordings on both cassette tape and vinyl LP of her performances over the previous 13 years.

In 1995, Norman filed a 3 million dollar suit against ''Classic CD'' magazine claiming that an article in the November 1994 issue depicted her "in a grotesque and exaggerated manner." Norman said the article, entitled "Deadlier Than The Male", mocked her speech in an effort "to ridicule and caricature her and all persons of African-American background and descent." After a five year battle, Norman eventually lost the lawsuit.

Honors and awards

In 1966 she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. In 1968 took first prize at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. In 1982 won a Gramophone Award for her recording of Strauss' "Four Last Songs". In 1982 was named Musical America magazine's Musician of the Year. In 1982 was awarded honorary doctorate from Howard University. In 1984 was awarded honorary doctorate from the Boston Conservatory of Music and the University of the South. In 1984 won a Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance for "Ravel: Songs of Maurice Ravel". In 1984 declared Commandeur de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, 1984 In 1984 France's National Museum of Natural History named an orchid for her. In 1998 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. In 1988 won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for "Wagner: Lohengrin". In 1989 won Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for "Wagner: Die Walkuere". In 1989 awarded the Légion d'honneur by French President Mitterrand. In 1990 named Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. In 1990 awarded an honorary Doctor in Music award from Juilliard School of Music. In 1991 her home town, Augusta, Georgia, dedicated Riverwalk Augusta's amphitheater, named in her honor. Norman was a featured performer during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Winner of the 1997 Radcliffe Medal, presented annually by the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association to honor individuals whose lives and work have had a significant impact on society. In March 1997, Jessye Norman was honored by New York's Associated Black Charities at the 11th Annual Black History Makers Awards Dinner for her contributions to the arts and to African American culture. In December 1997, Jessye Norman was invested with the USA's highest award in the performing arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, making history as the youngest recipient in the Honors' 20-year existence. In 1998 won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording for "Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle". In 1999 inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In 2000 was awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal for her work in the fight against lupus, breast cancer, AIDS, and hunger. In 2000 was awarded the Outstanding Alumnae by Howard University. In 2006 she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On September 22, 2006 the city of Pasadena, California, named September 22 "Jessye Norman Day" after she gave a performance at Blair IB Magnet High School. She is a lifelong member of the Girls Scouts of America as well as of Great Britain's Royal Academy of Music. Awarded France's Grand Prix du Disque for albums of lieder by Wagner, Schumann, Mahler and Schubert.

Won Amsterdam's Edison Award; and recording honors in Belgium, Spain, and Germany.

She was winner of an Ace Award from the National Cable Television Association for "Jessye Norman at Notre Dame." Jessye Norman has received honorary doctorates from more than 30 colleges, universities, and conservatories including Jesus College, Cambridge, the Manhattan School of Music, University of Michigan, Yale University, Northwestern University and Brandeis University. In 2009, Jessye Norman was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

References

Further reading

Gates, Henry Louis and Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (eds.) (2004) "Norman, Jessye" ''African American Lives'' Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 629–631, ISBN 0-19-516024-X

External links

Category:African American female singers Category:African American opera singers Category:American sopranos Category:Operatic sopranos Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Howard University alumni Category:University of Michigan alumni Category:American Protestants Category:People from Augusta, Georgia Category:1945 births Category:Living people

ca:Jessye Norman da:Jessye Norman de:Jessye Norman es:Jessye Norman fr:Jessye Norman hy:Ջեսսի Նորման it:Jessye Norman he:ג'סי נורמן nl:Jessye Norman ja:ジェシー・ノーマン pt:Jessye Norman ru:Норман, Джесси fi:Jessye Norman sv:Jessye Norman

Name	John Reed
Birth date	February 07, 1969
Birth place	TriBeCa, New York City
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupation	novelist
Website	''http://www.johnreed.tv''

John Reed (born February 7, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of four novels: ''A Still Small Voice'' (2000), ''Snowball's Chance'' (2002) with a preface by Alexander Cockburn, ''The Whole'' (2005), and ''All the World's a Grave: A New Play by William Shakespeare'' (2008). His fifth book, ''Tales of Woe'' (2010), is a collection of twenty-five stories, chronicling true stories of abject misery.

Biography

Born in 1969 in New York City, Reed is the son of artist David Reed and Judy Rifka. He attended Hampshire College, and received a Masters in Fine Art in Creative Writing from Columbia University. He teaches at The New School.

Reed was an early contributor to, and subsequently an editor with, ''Open City'', a New York literary journal published by Robert Bingham, who later founded the book series.

Works

thumb|left|Reed in Brooklyn reading from his non-fiction ''Tales of Woe'', at the [[MTV|MTV Press/Brooklyn Rail launch party.]]He is affiliated with the ''New York Press'' and ''The Brooklyn Rail''. "Americans are extremely sophisticated in terms of narrative forms," said Reed in an interview. "We see it in commercials, we see it on TV, we see it in movies. But the narrative forms we're talking about are three acts, five acts, depending on how you want to look at it. They're all based on a Christian model of sin, suffering, redemption; which is not a large model."

A Still Small Voice

''A Still Small Voice'' (Delacorte 2000, Delta 2001), Reed’s first novel, is a historical novel based on the life of a girl growing up in Kentucky from 1850-1870.

Snowball's Chance

''Snowball's Chance'' (Roof Books 2002/2003), Reed’s second novel was a controversial send-up of George Orwell’s ''Animal Farm'', and ended in a cataclysmic attack on the “Twin Mills” (reminiscent of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center). It became a bestseller in the field of books by independent literary publishers.

The Whole, or, Duh Whole

''The Whole'', Reed’s third novel, parodied MTV and was released in 2005 by MTV Books (Simon & Schuster). The novel described a gigantic hole that appears in the middle of the country, which engulfs four states.

All the World's a Grave

Reed, in a new work, returns to the overhaul of canonical English writers in ''All the World's a Grave'', fall 2008, Penguin Books. The work, subtitled "''A New Play by William Shakespeare''", is a tragedy in five acts, a "mash-up" constructed of lines drawn from five Shakespeare tragedies and one Shakespeare history; Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo & Juliet and Henry V. In the "literary trick" (as described by Page Six of The New York Post) Shakespeare's lines are rearranged into a wholly new story, in which Prince Hamlet of Denmark goes to war to claim his bride and the daughter of King Lear, Juliet. Upon a triumphant return home, Hamlet discovers that his mother has murdered his father, and married Macbeth. Visited by his father's ghost, and goaded by the opportunistic Lieutenant Iago, Hamlet is driven mad by the erroneous belief that Juliet is having an affair with General Romeo.

References

External links

John Reed's website

All the World's a Grave'', book website.

Kill the beavers!, ''The Daily Telegraph'', November 22, 2002.

John Reed: Saint George and the Damn Truth, ''Moby Lives'', Nove,ber 10, 2003.

John Reed: The Whole, an excerpt, ''Brooklyn Rail'', January 2005.

Dinitia Smith: A Pig Returns to the Farm, Thumbing His Snout at Orwell, ''The New York Times'', November 25, 2002.

Cathy Young: Blaming the Victim, ''Reason.com'', December 3, 2002.

Andrea Scrima: Review of Tales of Woe, Rumpus, November 16, 2010.

Interview with Arthur Phillips on rewriting Shakespeare

Category:1969 births Category:Living people Category:American novelists Category:American humorists Category:Writers from New York Category:Hampshire College alumni Category:Columbia University alumni Category:George Orwell Category:The New School faculty

Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845– 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers. Among his best-known works are his Nocturnes for piano, the songs "Après un rêve" and "Clair de lune", his ''Pavane'' and his ''Requiem''.

Born into a cultured but not unusually musical family, Fauré revealed his talent when he was a small boy. He was sent to a music college in Paris, where he was trained to be a church organist and choirmaster. Among his teachers was Camille Saint-Saëns, who became a lifelong friend. In his early years, Fauré earned a modest living as an organist and teacher, leaving him little time for composition. When he became successful, holding the important posts of organist of the Église de la Madeleine and head of the Paris Conservatoire, he still lacked time for composing, retreating to the countryside in the summer holidays to concentrate on composition.

By his last years, Fauré was recognised in France as the leading French composer of his day. An unprecedented national musical tribute was held for him in Paris in 1922 headed by the President of the Republic. Fauré had many admirers in England, but his music, though known in other countries, took decades more to become widely accepted. His music has been described as linking the end of Romanticism with the modernism of the second quarter of the 20th century. When he was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time of his death the atonal music of the Second Viennese School was being heard. The ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', which describes him as the most advanced composer of his generation in France, notes that his harmonic and melodic innovations affected the teaching of harmony for later generations. In contrast with the charm of his earlier music, his last works, written when increasing deafness had struck him, are elusive and withdrawn in character.

Biography

Early years

Fauré was born in Pamiers, Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, on 12 May 1845, the fifth son and sixth child of Toussaint-Honoré Fauré (1810–85) and Marie-Antoinette-Hélène Lalène-Laprade (1809–87). He was sent to live with a wet nurse until he was four years old. In 1849 Toussaint-Honoré was appointed director of the École Normale at Montgauzy, near Foix, and Fauré returned to live with his family. There was a chapel attached to the school, and the young Fauré spent hours playing the harmonium there. An old blind woman, who came to listen and give the boy advice, told his father of Fauré's gift for music. In 1853 an official of the National Assembly of France, Dufaur de Saubiac, heard Fauré and advised his father to send him to the École de Musique Classique et Religieuse (School of Classical and Religious Music), which Louis Niedermeyer was setting up in Paris. After reflecting for a year, Fauré's father agreed and took the 9-year-old boy to Paris in October 1854.

Fauré remained a boarder at the school for 11 years, during which he was helped by a scholarship from the bishop of his home diocese. The régime at the school was austere, the rooms were gloomy, the food was mediocre, and the boys were required to wear an elaborate uniform.|group= n}} The musical tuition, however, was excellent. Under Niedermeyer, the curriculum concentrated on church music, with the aim of producing qualified organists and choirmasters. Fauré's tutors were Clément Loret for the organ, Louis Dietsch for harmony, Xavier Wackenthaler for counterpoint and fugue, and Niedermeyer for the piano, plainsong and composition.

In March 1861 Niedermeyer died. Camille Saint-Saëns, who took his place in charge of piano studies, introduced his students to contemporary music, including that of Schumann, Liszt and Wagner. He took great pleasure in the progress of the gifted young Fauré. The two became close friends and remained so until Saint-Saëns died sixty years later. Fauré won many prizes while at the school, including ''premiers prix'' in composition for the ''Cantique de Jean Racine'', Op. 11, the earliest of his choral works to enter the regular repertory. He left the school in July 1865, as a ''Laureat'' in organ, piano, harmony and composition, with a ''Maître de Chapelle'' diploma.

First musical appointments

On leaving the École Niedermeyer, Fauré was appointed chief organist at the Church of Saint-Sauveur, at Rennes in Brittany. During his four years there he supplemented his income by taking private pupils, giving "countless piano lessons". He was bored at Rennes and had an uneasy relationship with the parish priest, who rightly doubted Fauré's religious conviction. Fauré was regularly seen stealing out during the sermon for a cigarette, and in early 1870, when he turned up to play at Mass one Sunday still in his evening clothes having been out all night at a ball, he was asked to resign. Almost immediately he secured the post of assistant organist at the church of Notre-Dame de Clignancourt, in the north of Paris. He remained there for only a few months; on the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, he volunteered for military service. He took part in the action to raise the Siege of Paris and saw action at Le Bourget, Champigny and Créteil.

After France's defeat by Prussia, there was a brief, bloody conflict within Paris, during the Commune. Fauré escaped to Rambouillet where one of his brothers lived, and then travelled to Switzerland, where he took up a teaching post at the École Niedermeyer, which had temporarily relocated there to avoid the violence in Paris. His first pupil at the school was André Messager, who became a lifelong friend and occasional collaborator. When Fauré returned to Paris in October 1871, he was appointed choirmaster at the Église Saint-Sulpice under the composer and organist Charles-Marie Widor. He regularly attended Saint-Saëns's musical salon gatherings and those of Pauline Viardot, to whom Saint-Saëns introduced him. He was an early member of the Société Nationale de Musique, formed in February 1871 under the joint chairmanship of Romain Bussine and Saint-Saëns, to promote new French music. Other members included Georges Bizet, Emmanuel Chabrier, Henri Duparc, Vincent d'Indy, César Franck, Édouard Lalo and Jules Massenet. Fauré became secretary of the society in 1874. Many of his works were first presented at the society's concerts.

In 1874, Fauré moved from Saint-Sulpice to the Église de la Madeleine, deputising for the principal organist, Saint-Saëns, during the latter's many absences on tour. Some admirers of Fauré's music have expressed regret that although he played the organ professionally for four decades, he left no solo compositions for the instrument. Saint-Saëns said of Fauré that he was "a first class organist when he wanted to be", and he was renowned for his improvisations. Nevertheless, he preferred the piano to the organ, which he played only because it gave him a regular income.

1877 was a significant year for Fauré, both professionally and personally. In January his violin sonata was performed at a Société Nationale concert with great success, marking a turning-point in his composing career. In March, Saint-Saëns retired from the Madeleine, succeeded as organist by Théodore Dubois, his choirmaster, to which subordinate post Fauré was now appointed. In July Fauré became engaged to Pauline Viardot's daughter Marianne, with whom he was deeply in love. To his great sorrow, she broke off the engagement in November 1877, for reasons that are not clear. To distract Fauré, Saint-Saëns took him to Weimar and introduced him to Franz Liszt. This visit gave Fauré a liking for foreign travel, which he pursued for the rest of his life. From 1878, he and Messager made trips abroad to see Wagner operas. They saw ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'' at Cologne Opera; the complete ''Ring'' cycle at the Hofoper in Munich and at Her Majesty's Theatre in London; and ''Die Meistersinger'' in Munich and at Bayreuth, where they also saw ''Parsifal''. They frequently performed as a party piece their joint composition, the irreverent ''Souvenirs de Bayreuth''. This short, skittish piano work for four hands sends up themes from ''The Ring''. Fauré admired Wagner and was familiar with the smallest details of his music, but he was one of the few composers of his generation not to come under Wagner's musical influence.

Middle years

In 1883, Fauré married Marie Fremiet, the daughter of a leading sculptor Emmanuel Fremiet. The marriage was affectionate, but Marie became resentful of Fauré's frequent absences, his ''"horreur du domicile"'', and his love affairs, while she remained at home. possibly followed by another to the composer Adela Maddison, in 1900 Fauré met the pianist Marguerite Hasselmans, the daughter of Alphonse Hasselmans. This led to a relationship which lasted for the rest of Fauré's life; he maintained her in a Paris apartment, and she acted openly as his companion.

Fauré and his wife had two sons, the first, born in 1883, Emmanuel Fauré-Fremiet (Marie insisted on combining her family name with Fauré's), became a biologist of international reputation; the second son Philippe was born in 1889. To support his family, Fauré spent most of his time in running the daily services at the Madeleine and teaching piano and harmony lessons. His compositions earned him a negligible amount, because his publisher bought them outright for 50 francs each, and Fauré received no royalties. During this period, he wrote several large-scale works, in addition to many piano pieces and songs, but he destroyed most of them after a few performances, only retaining a few movements in order to re-use motifs.

As a young man, Fauré had been very cheerful; a friend wrote of his "youthful, even somewhat child-like, mirth." His broken engagement, combined with his lack of success as a composer, precipitated bouts of depression, which he described as "spleen". In the 1890s, however, his fortunes improved. When Ernest Guiraud, professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, died in 1892, Saint-Saëns encouraged Fauré to apply for the vacant post. The conservative establishment at the Conservatoire regarded Fauré as dangerously modern, and their head, Ambroise Thomas, blocked the appointment, declaring, "Fauré? Never! If he's appointed, I resign." However, Fauré was appointed to another of Guiraud's posts, inspector of the music conservatories in the French provinces, which meant prolonged travelling around the country, but gave him a steady income and enabled him to give up teaching amateur pupils.

In 1896, Ambroise Thomas died, and Théodore Dubois took over as head of the Conservatoire. Fauré succeeded Dubois as chief organist of the Madeleine. Dubois' move had further repercussions: Jules Massenet, professor of composition at the Conservatoire, had expected to succeed Thomas, but had overplayed his hand by insisting on being appointed for life. He was turned down, Dubois was appointed instead of him, and Massenet resigned in fury. Fauré was appointed professor of composition in his place. He taught many young composers, including Maurice Ravel, Florent Schmitt, Charles Koechlin, Louis Aubert, Jean Roger-Ducasse, George Enescu, Paul Ladmirault, Alfredo Casella and Nadia Boulanger. In Fauré's view, his students needed a firm grounding in the basic skills, which he was happy to delegate to his capable assistant André Gedalge. His own part came in helping them make use of these skills in the way that suited each student's talents. Roger-Ducasse later wrote: "Taking up whatever the pupils were working on, he would evoke the rules of the form at hand ... and refer to examples, always drawn from the masters." Ravel always remembered Fauré's open-mindedness as a teacher. Having received Ravel's string quartet with less than his usual enthusiasm, Fauré asked to see the manuscript again a few days later, saying, "I could have been wrong". The musicologist Henri Prunières wrote, "What Fauré developed among his pupils was taste, harmonic sensibility, the love of pure lines, of unexpected and colorful modulations; but he never gave them receipts for composing according to his style and that is why they all sought and found their own paths in many different, and often opposed, directions."

Fauré's works of the last years of the century include incidental music for the English premiere of Maurice Maeterlinck's ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' (1898), and ''Prométhée'', a lyric tragedy composed for the amphitheatre at Béziers. Being written for outdoor performance, the work is scored for huge instrumental and vocal forces. Its premiere in August 1900 was a great success, and it was revived at Béziers the following year and in Paris in 1907. A version with orchestration for normal opera house-sized forces was given at the Paris Opéra in May 1917 and received more than 40 performances in Paris thereafter. From 1903 to 1921, Fauré regularly wrote music criticism for ''Le Figaro'', a role in which he was not at ease. His biographer Jean-Michel Nectoux writes that Fauré's natural kindness and broad-mindedness predisposed him to emphasise the positive aspects of a work.

Head of Paris Conservatoire

In 1905, there was a scandal in French musical circles over the country's top musical prize, the Prix de Rome. Fauré's pupil, Maurice Ravel, was widely believed to have been unfairly denied the prize by reactionary elements within the Conservatoire. Dubois was the subject of much censure, and resigned. Fauré was appointed in his place. With the support of the French government, he made sweeping changes to the administration and the curriculum. He introduced independent external judges to take part in decisions on admissions, examinations and competitions. This precipitated resignations by some faculty members: unable to give preferential treatment to their private pupils, they saw themselves deprived of a considerable extra income. With the curriculum, Fauré was seen as equally revolutionary; he was dubbed "Robespierre" by disaffected members of the old guard. He modernised and broadened the range of music taught at the Conservatoire. As Nectoux puts it, "where Auber, Halévy and especially Meyerbeer had reigned supreme … it was now possible to sing an aria by Rameau or even some Wagner – up to now a forbidden name within the Conservatoire's walls". The repertoire now ranged from Renaissance polyphony to the works of Debussy.

Fauré's new position meant that he was financially better off, and he also became much more widely known as a composer. Running the Conservatoire, however, left him with no more time for composition than when he was scraping a living as an organist and piano teacher. As soon as the working year was over, in the last days of July, he would leave Paris and spend the two months until early October in an hotel, usually by one of the Swiss lakes, to concentrate on composition. His works from this period include his lyric opera, ''Pénélope'', and some of his most characteristic later songs (e.g., the cycle ''La chanson d'Ève'', Op. 95) and piano pieces (Nocturnes Nos. 9–11; Barcarolles Nos. 7–11).

Fauré was elected to the Institut de France in 1909. His father-in-law and Saint-Saëns, both long-established members, canvassed strongly on his behalf, and he won the ballot, with 18 votes against 16 for the other candidate, Widor. In the same year, a group of young composers led by Ravel and Koechlin broke with the Société Nationale de Musique, which under the presidency of Vincent d'Indy had become a reactionary organisation. They formed a new group, the Société Musicale Indépendante, of which Fauré accepted the presidency. He also remained a member of the older society and continued to be on the best of terms with d'Indy; his sole concern was the fostering of new music. In 1911 he oversaw the Conservatoire's move to new premises in the rue de Madrid. During this time, Fauré developed ear trouble and gradually lost his hearing. Sound not only became fainter, but it was also distorted, so that pitches on the low and high ends of his audible range sounded like other pitches. He made efforts to conceal his difficulty but was eventually forced to abandon his teaching position.

In the early years of the century, Fauré's music began to gain a foothold in Britain, and to a lesser extent in Germany, Spain and Russia. He was a frequent visitor to England, and he was invited to play at Buckingham Palace in 1908, which opened many doors for him in London and beyond. He attended the London premiere of Elgar's First Symphony in 1908, and dined with Elgar afterwards. Elgar later wrote to their mutual friend Frank Schuster that Fauré "was such a real gentleman – the highest kind of Frenchman and I admired him greatly." Elgar tried to get Fauré's ''Requiem'' put on at the Three Choirs Festival, but it did not finally have its English premiere until 1937, nearly fifty years after its first performance in France. Composers from other countries also loved and admired Fauré. Tchaikovsky had thought him "adorable", Albéniz and Fauré were friends and correspondents for many years, Richard Strauss sought his advice, and in Fauré's last years, the young Aaron Copland was a devoted admirer.

The outbreak of World War I almost stranded Fauré in Germany, where he had gone for his annual composing retreat. He managed to get from Germany into Switzerland, and thence to Paris. He remained in France for the duration of the war. When a group of French musicians led by Saint-Saëns tried to organise a boycott of German music, Fauré and Messager dissociated themselves from the idea, though the disagreement did not affect their friendship with Saint-Saëns. Fauré did not recognise nationalism in music, seeing in his art "a language belonging to a country so far above all others that it is dragged down when it has to express feelings or individual traits that belong to any particular nation." Nevertheless, he was aware that his own music was respected rather than loved in Germany. In January 1905, visiting Frankfurt and Cologne for concerts of his music, he had written: "The criticisms of my music have been that it's a bit cold and too well brought up! There's no question about it, French and German are two different things."

Last years and legacy

In 1920, at the age of 75, Fauré retired from the Conservatoire because of his increasing deafness and frailty. In that year, he received the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'honneur, an honour rare for a musician. In 1922 there was a public tribute paid to him in a national ''hommage'', "a splendid celebration at the Sorbonne, in which the most illustrious French artists participated, brought him great joy. It was a poignant spectacle, indeed: that of a man present at a concert of his own works and able to hear not a single note. He sat gazing before him pensively, and, in spite of everything, grateful and content."

In his last years, Fauré suffered from poor health, partly brought on by heavy smoking. Despite this, he remained available to young composers, including members of Les six, who were devoted to him. Nectoux writes: "In old age he attained a kind of serenity, without losing any of his remarkable spiritual vitality, but rather removed from the sensualism and the passion of the works he wrote between 1875 and 1895."

Fauré died in Paris from pneumonia on 4 November 1924 at the age of 79. He was given a state funeral at the Église de la Madeleine and is buried in the Passy Cemetery in Paris.

After Fauré's death, the Conservatoire reverted to its former conservatism, with his own harmonic practice being held up as the farthest limit of modernity, beyond which students should not go. The generation of students born between the wars rejected this outdated premise, turning instead to Bartók, the Second Viennese School and the latest works of Stravinsky.

In a centenary tribute, the musicologist Leslie Orrey wrote in ''The Musical Times'': "'More profound than Saint-Saëns, more varied than Lalo, more spontaneous than d'Indy, more classic than Debussy, Gabriel Fauré is the master ''par excellence'' of French music, the perfect mirror of our musical genius.' Perhaps, when English musicians get to know his work better, these words of Roger-Ducasse will seem, not over-praise, but no more than his due."

Music

Aaron Copland wrote that although Fauré's works can be divided into the usual three periods, there is no such radical difference between his first and last manners as is evident with many other composers. Copland found premonitions of Fauré's last manner in even his earliest works, and traces of the early Fauré in the works of his old age: "The themes, harmonies, form, have remained essentially the same, but with each new work they have all become more fresh, more personal, more profound."

Influences on Fauré, particularly in his early work, included Mozart, Chopin and Schumann. The authors of ''The Record Guide'' (1955) wrote that Fauré learnt restraint and beauty of surface from Mozart, tonal freedom and long melodic lines from Chopin, "and from Schumann, the sudden felicities in which his development sections abound, and those codas in which whole movements are briefly but magically illuminated." His work was based on the strong understanding of harmonic structures that he gained at the École Niedermeyer from Niedermeyer's successor Gustave Lefèvre. Lefèvre wrote the book ''Traité d'harmonie'' (Paris, 1889), in which he sets out a harmonic theory that differs significantly from the classical theory of Jean-Philippe Rameau, no longer outlawing certain chords as "dissonant". By using unresolved mild discords and colouristic effects, Fauré anticipated the techniques of Impressionist composers.

In contrast with his harmonic and melodic style, which pushed the bounds for his time, Fauré's rhythmic motives tended to be subtle and repetitive, with little to break the flow of the line, although he used discreet syncopations, similar to those found in Brahms's works. Copland referred to him as "the Brahms of France". Jerry Dubins posited in 2007 in ''Fanfare Magazine'' that Fauré is the "missing link" between Brahms and Debussy.

To Sackville-West and Shawe-Taylor, Fauré's later works do not display the easy charm of his earlier music: "the luscious romantic harmony which had always been firmly supported by a single tonality, later gave way to a severely monochrome style, full of enharmonic shifts, and creating the impression of several tonal centres simultaneously employed."

Vocal music

Fauré is regarded as one of the masters of the French art song, or mélodie. In Copland's view, the early songs were written under the influence of Gounod, and except for isolated songs such as "Après un rêve" or "Au bord de l'eau" there is little sign of the artist to come. With the second volume of the sixty collected songs, Copland judged, came the first mature examples of "the real Fauré". He instanced "Les berceaux", "Les roses d'Ispahan" and especially "Clair de lune" as "so beautiful, so perfect, that they have even penetrated to America", and drew attention to less well known mélodies such as "Le secret", "Nocturne", and "Les présents". Fauré also composed a number of song cycles. ''Cinq mélodies "de Venise"'', Op. 58, was described by Fauré as a novel kind of song suite, in its use of musical themes recurring over the cycle. For the later cycle ''La bonne chanson'', Op. 61, there were five such themes, according to Fauré. He also wrote that ''La bonne chanson'' was his most spontaneous composition, with Emma Bardac singing back to him each day's newly written material. The ''Requiem'', Op. 48, was not composed to the memory of a specific person but, in Fauré's words, "for the pleasure of it." It was first performed in 1888. It has been described as "a lullaby of death" because of its predominantly gentle tone. Fauré omitted the ''Dies Irae'', though reference to the day of judgment appears in the ''Libera me'', which, like Verdi, he added to the normal liturgical text. Fauré revised the ''Requiem'' over the years, and a number of different performing versions are now in use, from the earliest, for small forces, to the final revision with full orchestra.

Fauré's operas have not found a place in the regular repertoire. Copland called ''Pénélope'' a fascinating work, and one of the best operas written since Wagner. He noted, however, that the music is, as a whole, "distinctly non-theatrical." The work uses leitmotifs, and the two main roles call for voices of heroic quality, but these are the only ways in which the work is Wagnerian. In Fauré's late style, "tonality is stretched hard, without breaking."

Piano works

In his piano works, Fauré shunned virtuosity in favour of the classical lucidity of the French. His piano works often use arpeggiated figures, with the melody interspersed between the two hands, and include finger substitutions natural for organists. These aspects make them daunting for some pianists, and even a virtuoso like Liszt found Fauré's piano music hard to play. The early piano works are clearly influenced by Chopin. An even greater influence was Schumann, whose piano music Fauré loved more than any other. With the sixth Nocturne, Fauré fully emerged from any predecessor's shadow. The pianist Alfred Cortot said, "There are few pages in all music comparable to these." The critic Bryce Morrison has noted that pianists frequently prefer to play the charming earlier piano works, such as the Impromptu No. 2, rather than the later piano works, which express "such private passion and isolation, such alternating anger and resignation" that listeners are left uneasy. Fauré was unimpressed by purely virtuoso pianists, saying, "the greater they are, the worse they play me."

Fauré wrote the ''Dolly Suite'' for piano four-hands between 1894 and 1897 and dedicated it to Hélène, daughter of Emma Bardac.

Orchestral and chamber works

Fauré was not greatly interested in orchestration, frequently inviting his former students such as Jean Roger-Ducasse and Charles Koechlin to orchestrate his concert and theatre works. His generally sober orchestral style reflects a definite aesthetic attitude. He was not attracted by striking combinations of tone-colours, which he thought were too often a form of self-indulgence and a disguise for the absence of ideas. In Nectoux's words, "The idea of timbre was not a determining one in Fauré's musical thinking". His best-known orchestral works are the orchestral suite ''Masques et bergamasques'' (based on music for a dramatic entertainment, or ''divertissement comique''), and music for ''Pelléas et Mélisande''. In the chamber repertoire, his two piano quartets, particularly the first, are among Fauré's better-known works. His other chamber music includes two piano quintets, two cello sonatas, two violin sonatas, a piano trio and a string quartet. Copland (writing in 1924 before the string quartet was finished) held the second quintet to be Fauré's masterpiece: "... a pure well of spirituality ... extremely classic, as far removed as possible from the romantic temperament." Other critics have taken a less favourable view: "The ceaseless flow and restricted colour scheme of Fauré's last manner, as exemplified in this Quintet, need very careful management, if they are not to become tedious." Fauré's last work, the String Quartet, has been described as an intimate meditation on the last things, and "an extraordinary work by any standards, ethereal and other-worldly with themes that seem constantly to be drawn skywards."

Recordings

Fauré made piano rolls of his music for several companies between 1905 and 1913. In the 1920s a few of Fauré's more popular songs were recorded, including "Après un rêve" sung by Olga Haley, and "Automne" and "Clair de lune" sung by Ninon Vallin. In the 1930s better-known performers recorded Fauré pieces, including Georges Thill ("En prière"), and Jacques Thibaud and Alfred Cortot (Violin Sonata No. 1 and Berceuse). Some of the orchestral music for ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' was recorded in 1938.

By the 1940s there were a few more Fauré works in the catalogues. A survey by John Culshaw in December 1945 singled out recordings of piano works played by Kathleen Long (including the Nocturne No. 6, Barcarolle No. 2, the Thème et Variations, Op. 73, and the Ballade Op. 19 in its orchestral version conducted by Boyd Neel), the ''Requiem'' conducted by Ernest Bourmauck, and seven songs sung by Maggie Teyte. Fauré's music began to appear more frequently in the record companies' releases in the 1950s. ''The Record Guide'', 1955, listed the Piano Quartet No. 1, Piano Quintet No. 2, the String Quartet, both Violin Sonatas, the Cello Sonata No. 2, two new recordings of the Requiem, and the complete song cycles ''La bonne chanson'' and ''La chanson d'Ève''.

In the LP and particularly the CD era, the record companies have built up a substantial catalogue of Fauré's music, performed by French and non-French musicians. Sets of his major orchestral works have been recorded under conductors including Michel Plasson (1981) and Yan Pascal Tortelier (1996). Fauré's main chamber works have all been recorded, with players including the Ysaÿe Quartet, Domus, Paul Tortelier, Arthur Grumiaux, and Joshua Bell. The complete piano works have been recorded by Kathryn Stott (1995), and Paul Crossley (1984–85), with substantial sets of the major piano works from Jean-Philippe Collard (1982–84), Pascal Rogé (1990), and Kun-Woo Paik (2002). Fauré's songs have all been recorded for CD, including a complete set (2005), anchored by the accompanist Graham Johnson, with soloists Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Felicity Lott, John Mark Ainsley and Jennifer Smith, among others. The ''Requiem'' and the shorter choral works are also well-represented on disc. ''Pénélope'' has been recorded twice, with casts headed by Régine Crespin in 1956, and Jessye Norman in 1981, conducted respectively by Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht and Charles Dutoit. ''Prométhée'' has not been recorded in full, but extensive excerpts were recorded under Roger Norrington (1980).

Modern assessment

A 2001 article on Fauré in ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'' concludes thus: }}

Fauré's biographer, Nectoux, writes in the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', that Fauré is widely regarded as the greatest master of French song, and that alongside the songs the chamber works rank as "Fauré's most important contribution to music". The critic Robert Orledge writes, "His genius was one of synthesis: he reconciled such opposing elements as modality and tonality, anguish and serenity, seduction and force within a single non-eclectic style, as in the ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' suite, his symphonic masterpiece. The quality of constant renewal within an apparently limited range … is a remarkable facet of his genius, and the spare, elliptical style of his single String Quartet suggests that his intensely self-disciplined style was still developing at the time of his death."

Notes and references

;Notes ;References

Sources

Anderson, Robert (1993). ''Elgar''. London: J M Dent. ISBN 0-460-86054-2

Holden, Amanda (ed.) (1997). ''The Penguin Opera Guide''. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-051385-X

Jones, J Barrie (1989). ''Gabriel Fauré – A Life in Letters''. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-5468-7

March, Ivan (ed.) (2007). ''The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2008''. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-141-0336-5

Moore, Jerrold Northrop. (1987) ''Elgar – A Creative Life''. Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 0-1928-4014-2

Nectoux, Jean-Michel, trans. J.A. Underwood (1984). ''Gabriel Fauré – His Life Through Letters''. London: Boyars. ISBN 0-7145-2768-8

Nectoux, Jean-Michel, trans. Roger Nichols (1991). ''Gabriel Fauré – A Musical Life.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23524-3

Nichols, Roger (1987). ''Ravel Remembered''. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 0-571-14986-3

Orledge, Robert (1979). ''Gabriel Fauré''. London: Eulenburg Books. ISBN 0-903873-40-0

Rosen, David (1995), ''Verdi: Requiem''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-39767-7

Sackville-West, Edward, and Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1956). ''The Record Guide''. London: Collins.

Wagstaff, John (1991). ''André Messager: A Bio-Bibliography''. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-25736-1

Vallas, Léon, trans. Hubert Foss (1951). ''César Franck'', London: Harrap, 1951.

External links

Gabriel Fauré MIDI files Kunst der Fuge site

Free scores at the Mutopia Project

Fauré's Songs in Schubertline (online) edition

"The Master of Charms" – a series of short articles about Fauré's music on AdventuresInMusic.biz

Oeuvres complètes pour orgue / J.S. Bach : révision par Gabriel Fauré. From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection

Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)

Septuor pour trompette, deux violons, alto, violoncelle, contre-basse et piano, op. 65 par C. Saint-Saëns, à 4 mains par G. Fauré. From Sibley Music Library Digital Scores Collection

Category:1845 births Category:1924 deaths Category:People from Pamiers Category:French composers Category:Romantic composers Category:Opera composers Category:20th-century classical composers Category:French classical organists Category:Deaf musicians Category:French military personnel of the Franco-Prussian War Category:Academics of the Conservatoire de Paris Category:Burials at Passy Cemetery, Paris

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name	Sérgio Mendes
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Sérgio Santos Mendes
alias	Santos Sergio
born	February 11, 1941Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
origin	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
instrument	Piano
genre	Bossa Nova, Latin Jazz, Jazz, Latino, Disco
occupation	Bandleader, Pianist, Composer, Songwriter
years active	1962–present
label	Capitol, Atlantic, A&M;, Elektra Records
associated acts	The Black Eyed Peas, The Sergio Mendes Band, Sergio Mendes & Brazil '65 }}

Sérgio Santos Mendes (; born February 11, 1941 in Niterói, Brazil) is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk.

Mendes is married to Gracinha Leporace who regularly performs vocals for her husband and can also be heard on his 2006 version of the Jorge Ben Jor song "Mas Que Nada" with The Black Eyed Peas.

Biography

Early career

The child of a physician in Niterói, Brazil, Mendes attended the local conservatory with hopes of becoming a classical pianist. As his interest in jazz grew, he started playing in nightclubs in the late-1950s just as bossa nova, a jazz-inflected derivative of samba, was emerging. Mendes played with Antonio Carlos Jobim (regarded as a mentor) and many U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil.

Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded ''Dance Moderno'' in 1961. Touring Europe and the United States, Mendes recorded albums with Cannonball Adderley and Herbie Mann and played Carnegie Hall. Mendes moved to the U.S. in 1964 and cut two albums under the Sergio Mendes & Brasil '65 group name with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records.

Sergio became full partners with Richard Adler, a Brooklyn-born American who had previously brought Bossa Trés plus two dancers, Joe Bennett and a Brasilian partner, to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, in 1963. He was also accompanied by Antonio Carlos Jobim; Flavio Ramos, and Aloisio Olivera, a Record and TV producer from Rio. The Musicians Union, only allowed this group to appear on one TV show; one club appearance (Basin Street East) before ordering them to leave the U.S. When the new Group, Brasil '65 was formed, Shelly Mann, Bud Shank and other West Coast musicians, got Sergio and the others into the local Musicians Union. Adler and Mendes formed Brasil '65 which consisted of Jorge Ben, Wanda Sá, and Rosinia de Valença, as well as the Sergio Mendes TRIO. Various changes were made, Albums recorded at Atlantic Records, and Capitol, before Adler and Mendes agreed to record songs in English, by famous American and British composers, and added two girls up front to make the group visually appealing, and to create a unique sound. Adler called a friend, Jerry Dennon In Seattle, who called Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss to arrange an audition for A&M; Records at their studio in the Hurok Building in Hollywood. They were signed to a contract and recorded ''Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66'', and changed the name to be like Herb's group, Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass. In 1969 Adler and Mendes separated, over specific 'Creative problems' between them, with Adler then selling his 50% interest in Brasil '66, all publishing, etc. Adler had introduced Mendes to Tito Puente, whom Adler had worked with for 3 years, to co-write a song, or for Sergio to record one of Puente's songs. Sergio refused, Santana recorded 'Oye Como Va' and the Santana & Puente relationship began.

Brasil '66

When sales were tepid, he replaced his Brazilian born vocalist Wanda de Sá with the distinctive voice of Chicago native Lani Hall (who learned Mendes' Portuguese material phonetically), switched to Herb Alpert's A&M; label, and released ''Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66'', an album that went platinum based largely on the success of the single "Mas Que Nada" (a Jorge Ben cover) and the personal support of Alpert, with whom Mendes toured regularly.

The original lineup of Brasil '66 was Mendes (piano), vocalists Lani Hall and Janis Hansen (singer), Bob Matthews (bass), José Soares (percussion) and João Palma (drums). John Pisano guested as guitarist. This line-up recorded three albums between 1966-1968 (including the best-selling ''Look Around'' LP), before there was a major personnel change for their fourth album ''Fool on the Hill''.

Karen Philipp replaced Hansen as the second female vocalist, while veteran drummer Dom Um Romão teamed with Rubens Bassini to assume percussionist duties.Claudio Slon was to join the group as drummer in 1969, and played with Mendes for nearly a decade. Sebastiao Neto was the new bassist and Oscar Castro-Neves the guitarist. This line up had a more orchestrated and big band sound than their predecessors. Most significantly, in the early 1970s, lead singer Hall pursued a solo career and became Alpert's second wife. Some accounts claim that Mendes was upset with Alpert for years for "stealing" Hall away from his group.

Though his early singles with Brasil '66 (most notably "Mas Que Nada") met with some success, Mendes really burst into mainstream prominence when he performed the Oscar-nominated Burt Bacharach and Hal David song "The Look of Love" on the Academy Awards telecast in April 1968. Brasil '66's version of the song quickly shot into the top 10, peaking at #4 and eclipsing Dusty Springfield's version from the soundtrack of the movie, ''Casino Royale''. Mendes spent the rest of 1968 enjoying consecutive top 10 and top 20 hits with his follow-up singles, "The Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair." From 1968 on, Mendes was arguably the biggest Brazilian star in the world, enjoying immense popularity worldwide and performing in venues as varied as stadium arenas and the White House, where he gave concerts for both Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. The Brasil '66 group appeared at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan in June 1970.

Middle career

Mendes' career in the U.S. stalled in the mid-1970s, but he remained very popular in South America and Japan. His two albums with Bell Records in 1973 and 1974 followed by several for Elektra from 1975 on, found Mendes continuing to mine the best in American pop music and post-Bossa writers of his native Brazil, while forging new directions in soul with collaborators like Stevie Wonder, who wrote Mendes' R&B-inflected; minor hit, "The Real Thing."

In 1983, he rejoined Alpert's A&M; records and enjoyed huge success with a self-titled album and several follow-up albums, all of which received considerable adult contemporary airplay with charting singles. "Never Gonna Let You Go", featuring vocals by Joe Pizzulo and Leza Miller, equalled the success of his 1968 single "The Look of Love" by reaching #4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart; it also spent four weeks atop the ''Billboard'' adult contemporary chart. In 1984 he recorded the "Confetti" album, which had the hit songs "Olympia", which was also used as a theme song for the Olympic games that year and "Alibis". The '80s also found Mendes working with singer Lani Hall again on the song "No Place to Hide" from the Brasil '86 album, and as producer for her vocals on the title song for the James Bond film ''Never Say Never Again''.

By the time Mendes released his Grammy-winning Elektra album ''Brasileiro'' in 1992, he was the undisputed master of pop-inflected Brazilian jazz. The late-1990s lounge music revival brought retrospection and respect to Mendes' oeuvre, particularly the classic Brasil '66 albums.

Later career

''Timeless'' features a wide array of neo-soul and alternative hip hop guest artists, most prominently will.i.am and The Black Eyed Peas. It was released February 14, 2006 by Concord Records.

It features The Black Eyed Peas, Erykah Badu, Black Thought, Jill Scott, Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, India.Arie, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Q-Tip, Stevie Wonder and Pharoahe Monch.

The 2006, re-recorded version of "Mas que Nada" with The Black Eyed Peas had additional vocals by Gracinha Leporace (Mendes' wife); a version that is included on his album ''Timeless''. In Brazil, the song is pretty well-known for being the theme song for the local television channel Globo's Estrelas.

The Black Eyed Peas' version also contains a sample of their 2004 hit "Hey Mama". The re-recorded song became popular on many European charts. On the UK Singles Chart, the song entered at #29 and rose to and peaked at #6 on its second week on the chart.

Legacy and influences

Grammy Award-winning American jazz pianist Bill Cunliffe said Sergio Mendes's music which he described as "jazz oriented" was an important influence in his playing style.

Discography

1963: Você Ainda Não Ouviu Nada!

1964: Bossa Nova York

1965: Brasil '65

1966: In Person at El Matador

1966: The Great Arrival

1966: Herb Alpert Presents

1967: Quiet Nights

1967: Equinox

1968: Look Around

1968: Fool on the Hill

1968: Sérgio Mendes' Favorite Things

1969: Crystal Illusions

1969: Ye-Me-Lê

1969: Stillness

1971: País Tropical

1972: Primal Roots

1975: Sergio Mendes

1977: Sergio Mendes Bralita

1978: Pelé

1978: Brasil '88

1979: Magic Lady

1980: Alegria

1983: Sérgio Mendes

1984: Confetti

1986: Brasil '86

1989: Arara

1991: Oceano

1996: Ara Latin

2003: Bomo Oce

2006: Timeless

2008: Encanto

2010: Bom Tempo

References

External links

Official Website

Sergio Mendes interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' July 2008

"Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66/'77/etc. The Sérgio Mendes Discography." ''brasil66.com,'' 2006.

"Sérgio Mendes." ''The Brazilian Sound: Brazil's Music & Culture,'' 13 July 2008.

July 2009 Interview with L.A. Record

Category:Bossa nova pianists Category:Brazilian jazz pianists Category:Brazilian jazz musicians Category:Brazilian jazz composers Category:Brazilian songwriters Category:Latin pop pianists Category:Latin jazz pianists Category:Soft rock pianists Category:Lounge music pianists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Música Popular Brasileira pianists Category:People from Niterói Category:1941 births Category:Living people

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