Born September 15, 1945, in Augusta, GA; daughter of Silas (an insurance broker) and Janie (a schoolteacher; maiden name, King) Norman. Education: Howard University, B.M. (cum laude), 1967; postgraduate study at Peabody Conservatory, 1967; M.Mus., University of Michigan, 1968. Politics: Democrat. Addresses: Office-- c/o Shaw Concerts Inc., 1995 Broadway, New York, NY 10023.

American soprano Jessye Norman is hailed as one of the world's greatest opera and concert singers and performers. Since the early 1970s she has starred at leading opera houses, concert halls, and music festivals throughout Europe, North America, and three other continents, and has also enjoyed a prolific recording career with over 40 albums and several Grammy Awards to her credit. Norman's voice has been resoundingly praised for its mastery of expression, technical control, and sheer power, while her diverse song repertoire spans standard and obscure operas to German lieder, avant-garde works, and even popular ballads. As a performer, she is known for her magnetic and dramatic personality, and, with her imposing physical presence, cuts an impressive figure before audiences. According to Curt Sanburn in Life, Norman on stage creates the perception of one who "veritably looms behind her lyrics."

Born into a musical family in Augusta, Georgia, Norman early on found encouragement to be a singer. Her mother, an amateur pianist, saw that all the children in the family took piano lessons, while Norman's father, a successful insurance broker, was a frequent singer in the family's Baptist church. As a young girl Norman loved singing and performed wherever she had the opportunity--in church, school, Girl Scout meetings, even a supermarket opening; yet she never formally studied voice until college. Norman fell in love with opera the first time she heard a Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast and soon mastered her first aria, "My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice," from Saint-Saens's Samson and Delilah. At 16 Norman traveled to Philadelphia with her school choral director for the Marian Anderson Scholarship competition and, while most of the participants were much older and she failed to win, received positive comments from the judges. On her return trip to Georgia she visited the music department of Howard University in Washington, D.C., and sang for Carolyn Grant, who would later become her vocal coach. After hearing Norman's voice, Grant recommended the budding soprano for a full-tuition four-year scholarship to the university when she came of college age.

Norman graduated from Howard with honors in 1967 and during her university career won many fans who heard her sing in the university choral group and local church choirs. Norman went on to complete a summer of postgraduate study at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, followed by her master's degree at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While at Michigan Norman worked with two renowned teachers of voice, French baritone Pierre Bernac--a famous teacher of the art song--and Elizabeth Mannion. To finance her graduate school studies Norman auditioned for and received grants from various musical foundations and in 1968 received a scholarship from the Institute of International Education that allowed her to enter Bavarian Radio's International Music Competition in Munich, Germany. When Norman was on a U.S. State Department musical tour of the Caribbean and Latin America that year she received word that she had won the prestigious European contest. Subsequently, she received offers to perform and work in Europe and moved overseas in 1969, following the path of many American singers who began their careers in the celebrated concert and opera halls of Europe.

Norman enjoyed rapid success in Europe. In December of 1969 she signed a three-year contract with the venerable Deutsche Oper in West Berlin and was a sensation in her debut--at the age of 23--as Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhauser. Norman thereafter received other primary roles with the opera company, in addition to numerous offers to sing concerts and operas throughout Europe. In 1970 she made her Italian debut in Florence in Handel's Deborah and the following year her busy opera schedule included performances in Mozart's Idomeneo in Rome, Meyerbeer's L'Africaine in Florence, and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro at the Berlin Festival. Later in 1971 Norman auditioned for and won the opportunity to sing the role of the Countess in a Philips recording of Figaro with the BBC Orchestra under the direction of Colin Davis. The recording was a finalist for the prestigious Montreux International Record Award competition and brought Norman much exposure to music listeners in Europe and the United States.

In 1972 Norman performed in a Berlin production of Verdi's Aida, a role in which she debuted later that year at the famed Italian opera stage, La Scala, in Milan. Also in 1972 she sang in a concert version of Aida at the Hollywood Bowl in California, followed by a performance at Wolf Trap in Washington, D.C., with the National Symphony Orchestra, and an acclaimed Wagner recital at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts.

Norman's triumphs of 1972 continued when she returned to Europe in the fall and debuted at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, England, as Cassandra in Berlioz's Les Troyens. She also made her debut at the prestigious Edinburgh Music Festival that year. As a result of these victories much acclaim and excitement awaited her first-ever New York City recital the following year when she appeared as part of the "Great Performers" series at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center. Norman's performance, which included songs by Wagner, Strauss, Brahms, and Satie, was hailed by Donald Henahan in the New York Times as one of "extraordinary intelligence, taste and emotional depth."

In the mid-1970s, wanting to more fully develop her vocal range, Norman made the decision to stop performing operas temporarily to concentrate on concert performances. She commented to John Gruen in the New York Times on her desire to master a broad repertoire. "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."

Over the years Norman's technical expertise has been among her most critically praised attributes. In a review of one of her recitals at New York City's Carnegie Hall, New York Times contributor Allen Hughes wrote that Norman "has one of the most opulent voices before the public today, and, as discriminating listeners are aware, her performances are backed by extraordinary preparation, both musical and otherwise." Another Carnegie Hall appearance prompted these words from New York Times contributor Bernard Holland: "If one added up all the things that Jessye Norman does well as a singer, the total would assuredly exceed that of any other soprano before the public. At Miss Norman's recital ... tones were produced, colors manipulated, words projected and interpretive points made--all with fanatic finesse."

Norman returned to the operatic stage in 1980 in a performance of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos in Hamburg, Germany, and in 1983 made her debut with New York City's Metropolitan Opera Company in its gala centennial season opener of Les Troyens. Norman shone among the star-studded cast, as the Times' s Henahan wrote in his review. "Miss Norman ... is a soprano of magnificent presence who commanded the stage at every moment," he declared. "As the distraught Cassandra she sang grippingly and projects well, even when placed well back in the cavernous sets."

Although Norman has had great success performing in full-scale opera productions, her formidable physical stature has somewhat limited the availability of stage roles to her and she has increasingly directed her opera singing to condensed concert versions. A standard in her repertoire has become "Liebestod" ("Love of Death"), the finale from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, in which a despondent and soon-to-expire Isolde sings to her dead beloved, Tristan. Henahan reviewed Norman's performance of "Liebestod" at the 1989 New York Philharmonic season opener: "Although she has never sung the complete role on any stage, she has handled this fearsome 10-minute challenge with increasing vocal authority and dramatic insight.... Hers is a grandly robust voice, used with great intelligence and expression."

Another pinnacle of Norman's career came in 1987 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood; her program of Strauss songs, which featured the final scene from Strauss's opera Salome, prompted more than ten minutes of applause and ovations. Michael Kimmelman wrote in the New York Times on the power of her performance: "Ms. Norman's voice seems to draw from a vast ocean of sound.... No matter how much volume Sieji Ozawa requested from his orchestra during the fiery scene from 'Salome,' it seemed little match for her voice. Yet, as always, what made the soprano's performance particularly remarkable was the effortlessness with which she could hover over long, soft notes.... And there is also the quality of sound she produces: even the loudest passages are cushioned by a velvety, seductive timbre."

Over the years Norman has not been afraid to expand her talent into less familiar areas. In 1988 she sang a concert performance of Poulenc's one-act opera La Voix Humaine ("The Human Voice"), based on Jean Cocteau's 1930 play of the same name, in which a spurned actress feverishly pleads to keep her lover on the other end of a phone conversation. Although Henahan noted in the Times that Norman's "characteristic ... style puts great emphasis on tragic dignity," and that the role perhaps called for less restraint, he nonetheless admired her as among those artists "driven to branch out into unlikely roles and whole idioms that stretch their talents interestingly, if sometimes to the breaking point."

Other of Norman's diverse projects have included her 1984 album, With a Song in My Heart, which contains numbers from films and musical comedies, and a 1990 performance of American spirituals with soprano Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall. Norman commented to William Livingstone in Stereo Review that one of her objectives as a performer is "to communicate, to be understood in many ways and on many levels." In 1989 she was invited to sing the French national anthem--"La Marseillaise"--in Paris during the celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Norman, who sings nearly flawless French, in addition to German and Italian, was particularly honored by the opportunity. "It makes you feel really good that people at home think you are worth their interest, but it's incredible to be so warmly received in a foreign country," she told Livingstone. "I love watching the faces of the people who are listening as I sing these songs and know that they understand."

As the 1990s unfolded, Norman's popularity never faltered, and toward the middle of that decade she migrated heavily toward mezzo soprano roles. In 1991 she performed in a concert recorded live with Lawrence Foster and the Lyon Opera Orchestra amid the tantalizing acoustics at Paris's Notre Dame cathedral. David Reynolds in American Record Guide noted of her performance of Gounod's "Ave Maria" at that event, "Because it is so humble, it is far more moving ... beyond reproach." Later, in 1993, Shirley Fleming said of Norman's Metropolitan Opera House appearance in the title role of Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, "She rode the surging countours of Strauss's luxuriant vocal line with all the power and luster for which she is famous ... Norman captured the grief and joy in seamless streams of rich vocalism."

Norman's efforts during the 1990s nonetheless incited some displeasure among stagnant critics, in particular regarding her selection of roles. Ironicallly among the most harshly criticized was her 1993 recording of Salome, released on the Philips label and featuring Seiji Ozawa and the Dresden State Orchestra. Two years later she made a recording as Judith in Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle, with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony. The 1993 recording--which was held and released five years later--prompted Critic William Brau in Opera News to bemoan the audio editing of the recording and the resultant loss of "The dark, mezzo colors of her voice, ... achingly beautiful, silvery." He applauded nonetheless, "A generous voice damped down [which] is very moving in this role." Among the supporters of her expanded style, Patrick O'Connor in New Statesman in reviewing her Wigmore concerts of 2001 lauded her dynamic versatility. He wrote of her flexibility, "Norman has constantly changed direction, embracing microphone technique for Duke Ellington and Michel Legrand, and last year giving the world premiere of Judith Weir's ... cycle, commissioned by Norman, [which] exploited the singer's voice at its best, concentrating on the middle range, with just a couple of excursions high and low, as if to prove that she still has the power." Likewise, Norman's Carnegie Hall Concert of April 18, 1995, was well received and, "A pleasure to find her powers of communication working quite persuasively," according to George W. Loomis in American Record Guide. On a return engagement at Carnegie Hall on December 6, 1998, Opera magazine reviewed the event and noted, "This is what the experience of great singing should be."

In 1999 Norman collaborated with choreographer-dancer Bill T. Jones in a project for New York City's Lincoln Center, called "How! Do! We! Do!" American Visions reviewed the program, calling it , "At once extraterrestrial, rooted in terra firma and divine ... a fusion of music, poetry and dance [that] provided both artists with an extraordinary opportunity, in the words of poet Frank O'Hara, 'to do something grand.'" Norman later released an album, I Was Born in Love with You in 2000, featuring the songs of Michel Legrand. The recording, reviewed as a jazz crossover project, featured Legrand on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Grady Tate on drums.

It was a rare honor for Norman in February and March of 2001 when she was featured at Carnegie Hall in a three-part concert series. With James Levine on piano, the concerts were a significant arts event, replete with an 80-page program booklet featuring a newly commissioned watercolor portrait of Norman by David Hockney.

In the New York Times interview with Gruen, Norman discussed the reverence with which she approaches her work. "To galvanize myself into a performance, I must be left totally alone. I must have solitude in order to concentrate--which I consider a form of prayer. I work very much from the text. The words must be understood, felt and communicated.... If you look carefully at the words and absorb them, you're half-way home already. The rest is honesty--honesty of feeling, honesty of involvement. If a performer is truly committed, then the audience will be the first to know and will respond accordingly. Of course, love is the thing that propels us all. It's what carries us along--that's the fuel!"

Norman received a Kennedy Center Honor from President Bill Clinton on December 7, 1997. On March 11, 2002, she was given the honor of performing "America the Beautiful" at a memorial service unveiling two monumental columns of light at the site of the former World Trade Center, as a memorial for the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City.

by Michael E. Mueller

Jessye Norman's Career

Opera and concert singer, 1969--; recording artist, 1971--. Opera credits include Tannhauser; The Marriage of Figaro; Deborah; Idomeneo; L'Africaine; Aida; Les Troyens; The Damnation of Faust; Ariadne auf Naxos; Bluebeard's Castle; Erwartung; Die Walkure; Don Giovanni; Hipppolyte et Aricie; Gotterdammerung; Dido and Aeneas; Oedipus Rex; Herodiade; and Les Contes d'Hoffmann. CA Numerous concert performances with orchestras around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and Berlin Philharmonic. Numerous music festival performances around the world, including Tanglewood, Aix-en-Provence, and Salzburg.

Jessye Norman's Awards

Grammy Awards, 1980, 1982, and 1985; Outstanding Musician of the Year Award, Musical America, 1982; Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France), 1984; Kennedy Center Honor, 1997; member, Royal Academy of Music. Honorary degrees from the University of Michigan, Howard University, Yale University, Harvard University, Brandeis University, and the Juilliard School of Music.

Famous Works

• Selective Works
• Beethoven, Ludwig van, Symphonie No. 6, op. 68: "Pastorale," Deutsche Grammophon, 1981.
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor London, 1987.
• Beethoven, Fidelio.
• Berg, Alban, Lulu Suite [and] Der Wein CBS Masterworks, 1979.
• Berlioz, Hector, Les nuits d'ete Philips, 1980.
• Berlioz, Les nuits d'ete [and] La mort de Cleopatre Deutsche Grammophon, 1982.
• Berlioz, Romeo et Juliette Angel, 1986.
• Bizet, Georges, Carmen Philips, 1989.
• Brahms, Johannes, Lieder Deutsche Grammophon, 1983.
• Brahms, A German Requiem Angel, 1985.
• Brahms, Symphony No. 3 in F; Alto Rhapsody.
• Bruckner, Anton, Symphonie nr. 8 c-moll [and] Te Deum Deutsche Grammophon, 1981.
• Bruckner, Te Deum [and] Helgoland [and] 150 Psalm Deutsche Grammophon, 1983.
• Chausson, Ernest, Poeme de l'amour et de la mer: op. 19 [and]
• Chanson perpetuelle: op. 37 [and other selections], Erato, 1983.
• Les chemins de l'amour Philips, 1977.
• Christmastide Philips, 1987.
• Debussy, Claude, L'enfant prodigue [and] La damoiselle elue Pro-Arte, 1982.
• Faure, Gabriel Urbain, Penelope Erato, 1982.
• Gluck, Christoph Willibald, Alceste 1982.
• Haydn, Joseph, La vera costanza Philips, 1977.
• Haydn, Armida Philips, 1979.
• In the Spirit Polygram, 1996.
• I Was Born in Love With You Philips, 2000.
• Jessye Norman Great Opera, 1999.
• Jessye Norman at Notre Dame (live), Philips, 1991.
• Jessye Norman Live Philips, 1988.
• Jessye Norman Sings Duparc, Ravel, Poulenc, Satie Philips, 1977.
• The Last Night of the Proms Philips, 1969.
• Lieder (various composers), Philips, 1988.
• Lucky To Be Me Polygram, 1992.
• Mahler, Gustav, Das Lied von der Erde Philips, 1982.
• Mahler, Symphony 2: "Resurrection," CBS, 1984.
• Mahler, Symphony No. 6 in A Minor; Songs of a Wayfarer.
• Mahler, Symphony No. 7 in E Minor; Kindertotenlieder.
• Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Die Gaertnerin aus Liebe Philips.
• Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro Philips, 1971.
• Offenbach, Jacques, La belle Helene Angel, 1985.
• Offenbach, Les contes d'Hoffmann Angel, 1988.
• Purcell, Henry, Dido and Aeneas Philips, 1986.
• Ravel, Maurice, Sheherazade Philips, 1980.
• Ravel, Songs of Maurice Ravel CBS Masterworks, 1984.
• Sacred Songs Philips, 1981.
• Schonberg, Arnold, Gurre-Lieder Philips, 1979.
• Schubert, Franz, Lieder Philips, 1973.
• Schubert, Lieder Philips, 1985.
• Schumann, Robert, Frauenliebe und Leben, op. 42 [and] Liederkreis, op. 39 Philips, 1976.
• Spirituals Philips, 1979.
• Strauss, Richard, Four Last Songs Philips, 1983.
• Strauss, Lieder Philips, 1986.
• Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos Philips, 1988.
• Stravinsky, Igor, Oedipus Rex Orfeo, 1983.
• Tippett, Michael, A Child of Our Time Philips, 1975.
• Verdi, Giuseppe, Un giorno di regno Philips, 1974.
• Verdi, Il corsaro Philips, 1976.
• Wagner, Richard, Tristan and Isolde [and] Five Poems by Mathilde Wesendonk Philips, 1975.
• Wagner, Wesendonk Songs Angel, 1986.
• Wagner, Lohengrin London, 1987.
• Wagner, Scenes From Tristan and Isolde, Tannhauser, Der fliegende Hollander, Gotterdammerung EMI, 1988.
• Wagner, Die Walkure Deutsche Grammophon, 1988.
• Weber, Carl Maria von, Euryanthe Angel, 1975.
• With a Song in My Heart Philips, 1984.

Further Reading

Books

• Greenfield, Edward, Robert Layton, and Ivan March, The New Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Cassettes, Penguin, 1988.
• Hunt, Adam Paul, Jessye Norman, Singer: Portrait of an Extraordinary Career, 1991.
• The International Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 10th edition, edited by Oscar Thompson, Dodd, 1975.

Periodicals

• American Record Guide, May-June 1993; November-December 1993; July-August 1995.
• American Visions, October 1999.
• Ebony, March 1988; July 1991.
• Life, March 1985.
• Musical America, January 1991; July 1991; September/October 1991; November/December 1991.
• Music and Musicians, August 1979.
• New Statesman, July 30, 2001.
• Newsweek, December 6, 1982.
• New York, April 1, 1991; April 29, 1991; May 20, 1991.
• New Yorker, April 1, 1991; May 20, 1991.
• New York Times, January 21, 1973; January 23, 1973; December 15, 1982; September 18, 1983; September 27, 1983; November 24, 1983; January 26, 1986; August 25, 1987; February 20, 1988; March 6, 1989; September 22, 1989; March 19, 1990.
• Opera News, June 1973; February 18, 1984; February 16, 1991; July 1991; October 1998; May 1999.
• Stereo Review, October 1989; February 1991; July 1991; August 1991; September 1991.
• Washington Post, August 7, 1972.