Diane Martindale, co-artistic director and co-founder of the Dicapo Opera Theater, died on March 19 at the age of 87 of natural causes.

Born on December 17, 1933, in Evansville, Indiana, Martindale received a master’s degree from Northwestern University in voice, piano, and opera, eventually making major productions of American operas and overseeing the artistic growth of the Dicapo Opera Theater for more than 30 years, which she founded alongside Michael Capasso in 1981 (the company would cease operations in 2013).

Martindale served as Music Director for more than 100 works of operas and musicals and prepared choral ensembles for notable conductors such as Bruno Walter, Fritz Reiner, Dino Anagnost, Robert Bass, and Anton Coppola, among others.

As a professional singer,  Martindale performed with the Grant Park Chorus, the Rockefeller Chapel Choir, and the Lake Forest Opera Company in Chicago, where she prepared Wagner’s “Parsifal” with the Chicago Symphony.

Martindale was also the director of the Dicapo Children’s Chorus, an ensemble made up of 40 children that appeared in all Dicapo productions and in a “Hansel and Gretel” production that was broadcast on television. The chorus, which was founded in 1982, also performed at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The Little Orchestra Society, Merkin Hall, the Rheinman Theater at New York University, and at the Rathaus Palace in Vienna.

She is survived by her son Cornelis Craane, and granddaughter Indigo Jade Craane.