Janie Norman Research Paper
On September 15, 1945, in Augusta, Georgia, Jessye Mae Norman was born. Her parents were Silas Norman and Janie King-Norman. Silas was her father and Janie was her mother. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was an insurance salesman.
She had five other siblings who were all musicians but not professional. Her mother, Janie, and her grandmother were both pianist. Her father, Silas, was a singer in a choir. Like all great musicians start, Jessye began playing the piano at age 2!
For her schooling she attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, A.R. Johnson Junior High School, and Lucy C. Laney Senior High School. All of the schools she attended was in downtown Augusta, Georgia.
Jessye sang gospel songs at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at only age four. By that people already knew that she was going to talented singer. When she first heard opera on the radio, she was nine years old and she immediately fell in love with it. She especially listened to Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. Looking back she credits them as her inspiration. When she was 16, she entered a contest called the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition, even though in the end she didn’t win, it landed her a full scholarship at Howard University in Washington D.C. …show more content…
While at Howard, Jessye sang in the university chorus.
She also was a professional soloist at Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ. In 1966 she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. In 1967 after Jessye graduated with a degree in music, she later began graduated-level studies at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and University of
Michigan.
Early Career
After Jessye Norman’s recital at the Kennedy Center, Octavio Roca from the Washington Post said, “The greatness of music speaks for itself when Jessye Norman sings. Listening to Jessye Norman find her way into a song is like watching in wonder as a beautiful morning reaches the climax of noon. Warmth and blinding light are everywhere in her voice.” It was also talked about by Edward Rothstein in The New York Times as "a grand mansion of sound. It defines an extraordinary space. It has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous falls."
She made her opera debut on the production of Tannhauser in 1969 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Many people wanted her to be a part of their opera and recitals. She has been on many stages from Lincoln Center to Covent Garden, Carnegie Hall to the Musikverein, from La Scala to the Paris Opera and the Vienna State Opera, from Tokyo to San Francisco, Houston and Boston, from Granada to Graz and from Salzburg to Hong Kong.
The French named an orchid after Jessye Norman and also made her a Commander of the Order and Arts of letters. For Cambridge and Harvard universities she was an honorary participant and she has received honorary doctorates from Juilliard, Howard, Harvard and Yale.
Jessye was named honorary ambassador for the United Nations, in 1990, by U.N. secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuellar. She is also a member of the Girls Scouts of America as well as of Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Music.
Mid Career
Jessye Norman won the Munich Competition in 1968, which got her a role in Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Berlin as Elizabeth. After that her career in Europe grew with roles in the following:
Meyerbeer 's L 'Africaine at Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1971
Verdi 's Aïda at La Scala in Milan in 1972
Cassandra in Berlioz 's Les Troyens at London 's Covent Garden in 1972
All of those roles were major parts. Most people wanted her because of her rich powerful and unique voice. Her voice ranges from contralto to high dramatic soprano.
As her career grew she had many important recitals such as in New York and London in 1973. Even though she had a big North American concert from 1976 to 1977 she did not appear in opera in the United States. She went with The Opera Company of Philadelphia as Dido in Purcell 's Dido and Aeneas and Queen Jocasta in Stravinsky 's Oedipus Rex. Her Metropolitan debut in 1983 was Cassandra and Dido, which she did in a historic production of Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz. It was also the opening night for the mets centennial season.
Jessye was also invited to sing at the second inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan on January 21, 1985. It was a great honor but she debated going to it on account she was an African American and a Democrat, but in the end she did accept and sang the folk song “Simple Gifts”.
One of her legendary work is her interpretation of Strauss 's Four Last Songs. She also sings the Gurrelieder of Arnold Schoenberg. She sang that opera at the Met with Bartók 's Bluebeard 's Castle, which was shown nationally.
Some Pieces and Voice Work
Some operatic songs she has been in or made are:
Lord, I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray (Traditional)
My Baby Just Cares for Me (Walter Donaldson)
April in Paris (Vernon Duke)
Solitude (Duke Ellington)
God’s Gonna Cut You Down (Traditional)
Habanera (Georges Bizet)
Take The ‘A’ Train (Billy Strayhorn)
It Don’t Mean A Thing (Duke Ellington)
Pretty Horses (Traditional)
Jessye is what people like to call a dramatic soprano, but she is known for singing operas ranging from all voice types. Jessye 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."
Jessye has been described as a diva in the truest sense. She is also one the most celebrated artist in opera. Her beautiful voice has won her many awards and she made history in 1997 by being the youngest recipient ever of a Kennedy Center Honor. She also released her first jazz album in 2000. She also has a performing arts school in her name right in her hometown Augusta, Georgia.
Bibliography
Online Websites
Joseph Stevenson. biography. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jessye-norman-mn0000042384
Travis Smiley. Legendary opera singer and five-time Grammy winner, who opens the L.A. MUSE/IQUE concert series, reflects on some of the performances in her career that she deems classic. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/opera-singer-jessye-norman/ The Kennedy Center. Jessye Norman. http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3781 Sony Classical. Star soprano Jessye Norman returns to her roots with a long awaited new solo album. http://www.sonymasterworks.eu/jessyenorman/dpp/index.html Books
Bigelow, B.C. (1994). Contemporary Black Biography. Library Reference book on Historical African Americans. From pages 210-213. Detroit: Gale Research Inc
She had five other siblings who were all musicians but not professional. Her mother, Janie, and her grandmother were both pianist. Her father, Silas, was a singer in a choir. Like all great musicians start, Jessye began playing the piano at age 2!
For her schooling she attended Charles T. Walker Elementary School, A.R. Johnson Junior High School, and Lucy C. Laney Senior High School. All of the schools she attended was in downtown Augusta, Georgia.
Jessye sang gospel songs at Mount Calvary Baptist Church at only age four. By that people already knew that she was going to talented singer. When she first heard opera on the radio, she was nine years old and she immediately fell in love with it. She especially listened to Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. Looking back she credits them as her inspiration. When she was 16, she entered a contest called the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition, even though in the end she didn’t win, it landed her a full scholarship at Howard University in Washington D.C. …show more content…
While at Howard, Jessye sang in the university chorus.
She also was a professional soloist at Lincoln Temple United Church of Christ. In 1966 she won the National Society of Arts and Letters singing competition. In 1967 after Jessye graduated with a degree in music, she later began graduated-level studies at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and University of
Michigan.
Early Career
After Jessye Norman’s recital at the Kennedy Center, Octavio Roca from the Washington Post said, “The greatness of music speaks for itself when Jessye Norman sings. Listening to Jessye Norman find her way into a song is like watching in wonder as a beautiful morning reaches the climax of noon. Warmth and blinding light are everywhere in her voice.” It was also talked about by Edward Rothstein in The New York Times as "a grand mansion of sound. It defines an extraordinary space. It has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous falls."
She made her opera debut on the production of Tannhauser in 1969 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Many people wanted her to be a part of their opera and recitals. She has been on many stages from Lincoln Center to Covent Garden, Carnegie Hall to the Musikverein, from La Scala to the Paris Opera and the Vienna State Opera, from Tokyo to San Francisco, Houston and Boston, from Granada to Graz and from Salzburg to Hong Kong.
The French named an orchid after Jessye Norman and also made her a Commander of the Order and Arts of letters. For Cambridge and Harvard universities she was an honorary participant and she has received honorary doctorates from Juilliard, Howard, Harvard and Yale.
Jessye was named honorary ambassador for the United Nations, in 1990, by U.N. secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuellar. She is also a member of the Girls Scouts of America as well as of Great Britain’s Royal Academy of Music.
Mid Career
Jessye Norman won the Munich Competition in 1968, which got her a role in Wagner’s Tannhäuser in Berlin as Elizabeth. After that her career in Europe grew with roles in the following:
Meyerbeer 's L 'Africaine at Maggio Musicale in Florence in 1971
Verdi 's Aïda at La Scala in Milan in 1972
Cassandra in Berlioz 's Les Troyens at London 's Covent Garden in 1972
All of those roles were major parts. Most people wanted her because of her rich powerful and unique voice. Her voice ranges from contralto to high dramatic soprano.
As her career grew she had many important recitals such as in New York and London in 1973. Even though she had a big North American concert from 1976 to 1977 she did not appear in opera in the United States. She went with The Opera Company of Philadelphia as Dido in Purcell 's Dido and Aeneas and Queen Jocasta in Stravinsky 's Oedipus Rex. Her Metropolitan debut in 1983 was Cassandra and Dido, which she did in a historic production of Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz. It was also the opening night for the mets centennial season.
Jessye was also invited to sing at the second inauguration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan on January 21, 1985. It was a great honor but she debated going to it on account she was an African American and a Democrat, but in the end she did accept and sang the folk song “Simple Gifts”.
One of her legendary work is her interpretation of Strauss 's Four Last Songs. She also sings the Gurrelieder of Arnold Schoenberg. She sang that opera at the Met with Bartók 's Bluebeard 's Castle, which was shown nationally.
Some Pieces and Voice Work
Some operatic songs she has been in or made are:
Lord, I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray (Traditional)
My Baby Just Cares for Me (Walter Donaldson)
April in Paris (Vernon Duke)
Solitude (Duke Ellington)
God’s Gonna Cut You Down (Traditional)
Habanera (Georges Bizet)
Take The ‘A’ Train (Billy Strayhorn)
It Don’t Mean A Thing (Duke Ellington)
Pretty Horses (Traditional)
Jessye is what people like to call a dramatic soprano, but she is known for singing operas ranging from all voice types. Jessye 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."
Jessye has been described as a diva in the truest sense. She is also one the most celebrated artist in opera. Her beautiful voice has won her many awards and she made history in 1997 by being the youngest recipient ever of a Kennedy Center Honor. She also released her first jazz album in 2000. She also has a performing arts school in her name right in her hometown Augusta, Georgia.
Bibliography
Online Websites
Joseph Stevenson. biography. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jessye-norman-mn0000042384
Travis Smiley. Legendary opera singer and five-time Grammy winner, who opens the L.A. MUSE/IQUE concert series, reflects on some of the performances in her career that she deems classic. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/interviews/opera-singer-jessye-norman/ The Kennedy Center. Jessye Norman. http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3781 Sony Classical. Star soprano Jessye Norman returns to her roots with a long awaited new solo album. http://www.sonymasterworks.eu/jessyenorman/dpp/index.html Books
Bigelow, B.C. (1994). Contemporary Black Biography. Library Reference book on Historical African Americans. From pages 210-213. Detroit: Gale Research Inc