
Obituary: Judy Drucker Dies At 91
By Francisco Salazar(Credit: Judydrucker.com)
Impresaria Judy Drucker has died at the age of 91.
According to her daughter Vicki Schwartz, she died from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
A child prodigy, Drucker studied piano at the New York College of Music, and voice at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. Drucker went on to perform as a coloratura soprano with the Coral Gables Philharmonic Symphony and then appeared on Broadway and with the Greater Miami-Dade Opera.
In 1967, she founded the Great Artists Series in Temple Beth Sholom in Florida which became a huge success in the 1980s and the 1990s and saw the likes of Richard Tucker, Vladimir Horowitz, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman, Yefim Bronfman, Zubin Mehta, Evgeny Kissin, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, James Conlon, Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Beverly Sills, Cecilia Bartoli, Yo Yo Ma, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Wynton Marsalis, and Valery Gergiev, among others presented in Florida.
She also brought the Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Kirov Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Berlin Staatskapelle to Florida through the series.
Her cultural series was eventually expanded and she formed the Concert Association of Greater Miami which eventually became the Concert Association of Florida, Artistic Management Company, Inc., Orchestra of Miami, Inc., the Prestige Series, the Virtuoso Society, the Great Diva series, the Dance Alive! series and the “The World of Dance.”
Drucker held the position of senior artistic adviser for the Florida Grand Opera and in 2017 she celebrated her 50th anniversary with a tribute dedicated to her work.
She is survived by her two daughters Vicki and Kathy and her son Andrew.
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