Marilyn Horne
Celebrated mezzo-soprano Marilyn
Horne has been one of America’s most widely accomplished, influential and
beloved artists for more than four decades. Throughout the course of her
career, Ms. Horne has performed on the world’s greatest opera stages, in
recital at the most prestigious venues, and in concert with all the major
symphony orchestras.
The 2011–2012 season marks the 14th year of
her residency at the University of
Oklahoma, her seventh at the Oberlin
Conservatory, and her sixth at the Manhattan School of Music. She has
given master classes for four years at the University of Maryland, has recently
began teaching master classes at Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Maryland, and at St. Joseph College in West Hartford,
Connecticut. She maintains her position as the vocal program director at the
Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.
Among countless honors, Ms. Horne was
recognized by President Clinton as a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1995 and
was the first recipient of Italy’s Rossini “Medaglia
d’Oro” award, which was created especially for her. Ms. Horne was
inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2009, and
was honored in Washington, DC, as the 2009 recipient of the National Endowment
for the Arts Opera Honors.
Born in Bradford, Pennsylvania, Ms. Horne
began her musical studies with her father and first sang in public at the age
of two. At the age of 20, she made her operatic debut with the Los Angeles
Guild Opera Company and, at that same age, dubbed the voice of Carmen in the
highly successful film Carmen Jones,
starring Dorothy Dandridge in the title role. In 1960, she made her debut in
Berg’s Wozzeck with the San Francisco
Opera, followed by her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in 1961.
In celebration of her birthday in January 1994, Miss Horne launched the
Marilyn Horne Foundation, dedicated to the art of the vocal recital and
presentation of young singers in recital throughout the US. In July 2010, the
foundation’s programs became a part of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute
and continue Ms. Horne’s legacy at Carnegie Hall.