| Biography | Jessye Norman was an American opera singer and recitalist. Norman grew up in a family of amateur artists and sang in church from the age of four. She earned a scholarship to study music at the historically black college Howard University in Washington DC before going on to the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan.
She made her opera debut in Berlin in 1969, and performed across the continent, wowing audiences with a voice described as both sumptuous and shimmering. Norman sang at the presidential inaugurations of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and at the 60th birthday celebrations of Queen Elizabeth in 1986.
A dramatic soprano, Norman was associated in with roles such as Wagner's Sieglinde, Ariadne by Richard Strauss, Gluck's Alceste, Beethoven's Leonore and Cassandra in Les Troyens by Berlioz. and Cassandre. Norman was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and became a Spingarn Medalist in 2013. In addition to receiving several honorary doctorates and awards, she also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, and was a member of the British Royal Academy of Music. |