American soprano Gianna Rolandi died on Sunday, June 20, 2021 at age 68. Rolandi was born in New York City on August 16, 1952, and grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Her mother Jane Frazier was also a lyrical singer and her father was an Italian-born obstetrician. Rolandi began her musical studies as a violinist, but opera, especially such works {…}
Spanish tenor Francisco Ortiz Calurano, born in Almendralejo, Badajoz in 1938, died at the age of 82. Ortiz began his musical studies when he was 20-years-old at the Madrid Conservatory, where he stayed for two years. He then moved to Italy at 24 to study at La Scala in Milan for four years. He made his debut in Prague in {…}
Composer and conductor Cristóbal Halffter passed away on May 23, 2021 at the age of 91 in Villafranca del Bierzo. Halffter was born in Madrid, Spain and was educated at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. A member of the so-called “Generación del 51,” he led the creation of Spanish music, highlighting pieces such as the Elegies to {…}
The Gayarre Amigos de la Ópera de Navarra Association has announced that bass-baritone Alfonso Echeverría died in Pamplona on May 19, 2021. He was 70. Born in San Sebastián, Spain, Echeverría studied at the Real Conservatorio Superior de la Música. He graduated in law from the Complutense University of Madrid, but his inclination was always towards music and he would {…}
Austrian soprano Maria Kouba has died at the age of 100. The family first reported the death of the well-known soprano. Kouba, who was born in Graz, Austria, became well known at the end of the 1950s, thanks to her interpretation in the title role of Richard Strauss’ “Salome.” She first sang the role in Graz in 1957, stepping in {…}
Moscow-born Russian baritone Vladimir Redkin passed away on May 12. Redkin enjoyed a long and successful career at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, where he sang most of his artistic life. He kicked off his studies at the Moscow State Conservatory, under the tutelage of Professor Zurab Sotkilava before eventually becoming a soloist with the Bolshoi Theater Opera Company. A {…}
British soprano Pauline Tinsley died on May 11 at the age of 93. She was born near Manchester, in Wigan, England, in March 1928 and studied at the Northern College of Music before heading to in London, where she made her debut in 1961 with the Philopera at London’s St. Pancras Town Hall. In the 60s she was part of {…}
Philadelphia Classical Music Community member Ghenady Meirson passed away after a fierce battle with cancer. Meirson was born in Odessa, Ukraine and graduated from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied piano with Seymour Lipkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski and accompanying with Vladimir Sokoloff. In 1982, Meirson wrote “Do Sing in Russian,” which {…}
(Credit: https://jamesprimosch.com/biography/) James Primosch, composer, producer, and pianist, passed away on April 26, 2021, at the age of 65. Primosch was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1956 and studied at Cleveland State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University. He was an active pianist and studied jazz piano and worked as a liturgical musician with leading artists and ensembles {…}
Paul Kellogg, former general and artistic director of the New York Opera and Glimmerglass Opera, passed away on April 28, 2021 at age 84, at Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown. Kellogg seemed destined for the arts from the start as his parents were also linked to art: his father worked at 20th Century Fox while his mother was a notable pianist. {…}
Baritone Theodore Lambrinos has died at the age of 85 due to the COVID-19 pneumonia complications on March 29 in Brooklyn. The baritone appeared on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, and was a regular performer with the New York Grand Opera Company, where he performed roles in such operas as “Nabucco” and “La Bohème,” among others. Lambrinos was born {…}