American Soprano Marilyn Tyler Dies, Aged 91

By Logan Martell

American soprano Marilyn Tyler has passed away on Dec. 21, 2017.

Her career spanned 25 years, during which time she performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cologne Radio Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony. As a soloist, she sang under the baton of conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Sir Colin Davis, Georg Solti, and Leonard Bernstein.

In the 1970s, Tyler served as director for the newly-established Iran Opera in Tehran, created by Empress Farah Diba. With the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which resulted in the downfall of the royal family, Tyler spent the next nine months in Iran before she was able to escape into Pakistan, where she would find employment with the U.S. Information Service’s Pakistan-American Cultural Center. Following an attack on the U.S. Embassy two years later, Tyler returned to the U.S., where she would teach at the University of New Mexico from 1983 until her retirement in 2011.

Her students have gone on to perform on stages worldwide and she was given the UNESCO Award for best recording of a contemporary composition for orchestra and soprano.

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