Shirley Verrett And Henry Lewis Early Supporter Passes Away

Champion For Music: Sylvia Kunin, seen here in 2014, provided support for numerous in the classical world.

"In 1955, Sylvia Kunin founded the Young Musicians Foundation in Los Angeles that provided support and a showcase for budding classical-music talents — including conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, guitarist Christopher Parkening and soprano Shirley Verrett — long before they were world-famous....Kunin, 101, died Feb. 12 in a Seattle retirement community. She had had a recent fall and was in declining health, said her son, Barry Eben. The YMF is still going strong. Other musicians who got an early boost not only from the foundation but also from classical music television shows Kunin hosted beginning in the early 1950s include violinists Misha Dichter and Glenn Dicterow, conductors Lawrence Foster and Henry Lewis and cellist Nathaniel

Michael Tilson Thomas with Sylvia Kunin in earlier days

Rosen....'She was a very diminutive figure, but her energy was colossal,' Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, said in an interview this week. The YMF orchestra was his first, at 20, as music director. 'One minute she could be very charming, even flirtatious, and the next she would belt out, 'Oh, c'mon!' if she sensed any of the grandiosity that can come with classical music.' She was not just a fan of the music. Kunin was a piano prodigy who won

Early photo of Young Musicians Foundation with Shirley Verrett in the front center

competitions and studied with Artur Schnabel in prewar Europe. The fact that her career faltered helped fuel her drive to pave the way for others....In 1954 came her follow-up show, Debut, with musicians competing for $1,000 scholarships. To lead the show's orchestra, she hired Henry Lewis, a double-bass player in the Los Angeles Philharmonic who had long wanted to conduct but was not getting opportunities. 'The podium was a long way away for a little black kid growing up in Los Angeles,' he told The Times in 1985. Kunin gave Lewis, who went on to a long career conducting at the Metropolitan Opera and other venues, the chance. 'Sylvia was always interested in finding someone who had something special to say,' said Lewis, who died in

Conductor Henry Lewis with his then wife
opera singer Marilyn Horne

1996....She and her husband, actor Al Eben, moved to Hawaii, where he had a recurring role as the medical officer in the TV series Hawaii Five-0. While there she started a new TV program featuring student musicians, Musical Encounters, for distribution to schools and showings on public television. It continued when she and her husband returned to L.A. in 1975. After Al Eben died in 2003, she moved to Seattle to be closer to her son and his family. The production of Musical Encounters continued there and at the end of the last show, featuring a young soprano in 2012, surprise tributes from Thomas, Parkening and others were read. Kunin, then 99, stood and addressed the audience in a still-strong voice. 'I'm glad I was able to live this long,' she said. 'I really feel very lucky. You can't be luckier.'" [Source] Learn more about the YMF by clicking here. Watch a wonderful video of Sylvia Kunin from March 2014 about the creation of the Young Musicians Foundation.

Remembering Maestro Claudio Abbado And His Opera Stars

Claudio Abbado backstage with Renata Scotto after I Capuleti e i Montecchi at Teatro alla Scala in 1967

Conductor Claudio Abbado passed away on Monday, January 20, 2014, at the age of 80. He left an immaculate legacy of live musical performances and countless recordings on a variety of labels. He conducted a great majority of opera throughout his career and subsequently had many friendships with singers from around the globe. Check out some spectacular photos of the Maestro with singers from the past 50 years, along with some biographical information, after the jump.

Kathleen Turner in Full-On Operatic Mode For Early Portrait

An older photo of a glamorous Kathleen Turner. She almost looks like an opera singer in this portrait. Seems like she would be a mezzo-soprano singing French repertoire. Which of these selections do you think she would most likely be singing?
"O ma lyre immortelle"from Sapho (Gounod)
"Mort de Didon" from Les Troyens (Berlioz)
"Printemps qui commence" from Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns)
"D'amour l'ardente flamme" from La damnation de Faust (Berlioz)
"Asie" from Shéhérazade (Ravel)

Arkiv Music Revives Classics From CBS/RCA Catalog

Many recordings by fine artists like Frederica von Stade and Shirley Verrett have never seen the light of day on compact disc. That has changed now that Arkiv Music has licensed eight releases from Sony, which holds the rights to the catalogs of CBS Masterworks and RCA, allowing the artistry of these two singers to be brought to the world. Now, any chance we could get re-issues of Anna Moffo's French Opera Arias, complete Thaïs, Debussy songs, Verdi arias, Irvin Berlin and Gershwin songs, La Juive highlights, bel canto songs of Bellini, Verdi, Rossini and Donizetti, Dream Duets with Sergio Franchi, One Night in Love with Skitch Henderson, the album of her singing works she composed, etc.?

Opera Index Honors George Shirley

Opera Index will presents its 2011 Distinguished Achievement Award to tenor George Shirley at their 27th annual black-tie winter gala on Sunday, January 16. The event will take place at the Jumeirah Essex House in New York City and Spiro Malas will present the award. They will also posthumously award the late mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett.

The Opera Index is a non-profit organization that has boosted the careers of more than 250 young singers through its annual vocal competition since its inception in 1984. 

Pictures and biography of George Shirley after the jump.