File:Jessye_Norman-_In_Conversation_with_Tom_Hall_(15977754135)_(cropped).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Jessye Norman
Sign in to saveAlso known as Jessye Mae Norman, Jessye Jordan Norman Noble
American opera singer (1945–2019)
OverviewAI-generated
Jessye Norman was an American soprano opera singer. Born Mae Norman in Augusta, Georgia, in 1945, she was an African American woman who studied at Howard University and the Peabody Institute. She was a student of Pierre Bernac and performed in the genres of opera and jazz. Her professional work included recordings recognized in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences collection and the Kennedy Center Honors collection.
Norman received several major awards, including the Spingarn Medal, the National Medal of Arts, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Wolf Prize in Arts. She was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She died of natural causes in New York City in 2019 due to septic shock and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome.
Synthesized by Vinony from 35 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film & TV
Augusta, Georgia, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jessye Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. A dramatic soprano, Norman was associated in particular with the Wagnerian repertoire, and with the roles of Sieglinde, Ariadne, Alceste, Leonore, and Cassandre. Apart from receiving several honorary doctorates and other awards, she also received the Grammy…
Known for
- The Magic of Spirituals — Self (archive footage)2023
- Mitterrand, président culturel — Self (archive footage)2021
- Toni Morrison Remembers — Self2015
- Karajan's Magic and Myth — Self2014
- Willkommen bei Carmen Nebel — Self2004
- Vangelis – Mythodea (Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey) — Self - Lead Singer2002
- Im Herzen des Lichts – Die Nacht der Primadonnen — Self2002
- Beckmann — Self1999
- Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child — Thunder Mountain Woman (voice)1995
- Oedipus Rex — Jocasta1993
via TMDB
Music · MusicBrainz
- Type
- Person
- Gender
- Female
- Origin
- United States
- Active from
- 1945
- Active to
- 2019
Discography
via MusicBrainz · CC0
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 21,993
- Total plays
- 166,731
Tags
Jessye Mae Norman (Augusta, Georgia, USA, September 15, 1945 - September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. A dramatic soprano, Norman is associated in particular with the Wagnerian repertoire, and with the roles of Sieglinde, Ariadne, Alceste, and Leonore. Norman has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and is a Spingarn Medalist. Apart from receiving several honorary doctorates and other awards, she also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award <a href=
Key facts
- Born
- Jessye Mae Norman , ( 1945-09-15 ) September 15, 1945, Augusta, Georgia , U.S.
- Died
- September 30, 2019 (2019-09-30) (aged 74), New York City, U.S.
- Education
- Howard University ( BM ) Peabody Institute University of Michigan ( MM )
- Occupation
- Operatic soprano
- Years active
- 1968–2019
- Awards
- Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award National Medal of Arts Honorary Ambassador to the United Nations Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Mae
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Augusta
- Place of death
- New York City
- Occupation
- opera singer
- Student of
- Pierre Bernac
- Field of work
- opera
- Genre
- jazz
- Instrument
- voice
- Image
- Jessye Norman (opera singer, "Dido & Aenas"), 1982 (cropped).jpg
- Voice type
- soprano
Show 9 more facts
- date of birth
- 1945-09-15
- ethnic group
- African Americans
- member of
- Alpha Kappa Alpha
- Commons category
- Jessye Norman
- date of death
- 2019-09-30
- cause of death
- multiple organ dysfunction syndrome
- medical condition
- spinal cord injury
- name in native language
- Jessye Norman
- manner of death
- natural causes
Sources (8)
via Wikidata · CC0
~30 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Jessye Mae Norman (September 15, 1945 – September 30, 2019) was an American opera singer and recitalist. She was able to perform dramatic soprano roles, but did not limit herself to that voice type. A commanding presence on operatic, concert and recital stages, Norman was associated with roles including Beethoven's Leonore, Wagner's Sieglinde and Kundry, Berlioz's Cassandre and Didon, and Bartók's Judith. The New York Times music critic Edward Rothstein described her voice as a "grand mansion of sound" that "has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous halls."
Norman trained at Howard University, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Michigan. Her career began in Europe, where she won the ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1968, which led to a contract with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Her operatic début came as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, after which she sang as Verdi's Aida at La Scala in Milan. She made her first operatic appearance in the U.S. in 1982 with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, when cast as Jocasta in Stravinsky's Oedipus rex, and as Dido in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. She went on to sing leading roles with many other companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Paris Opera, and the Royal Opera, London. Internationally well known, she was invited to sing at the second inauguration of Ronald Reagan and at Queen Elizabeth II's 60th birthday celebration in 1986 and performed La Marseillaise to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution on July 14, 1989. She sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Atlanta and for the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jessye Norman” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.