Barbara Hendricks To Give Speech And Get Honorary Degree At UNL

Barbara Hendricks seen here in her groundbreaking portrayal of Mimì for the
1988 film version of Puccini's La Bohème directed by Luigi Comencini.

"Spring semester commencement exercises at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are set for May 8-9. Graduate and professional degrees will be awarded May 8 at 3 p.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Commencement for students earning bachelor's degrees is May 9 at 9:30 a.m., also at the arena. Opera singer and UNL alumna Barbara Hendricks will give the undergraduate commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree. Born in Arkansas, Hendricks received a bachelor of science degree from UNL and later studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 1974, she made her operatic debut at the San Francisco Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival as well as her recital debut in New York City's Town Hall. Hendricks has sung at the Paris Opera, the MET in New York, Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milano. Hendricks made her jazz debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1994 and has since performed regularly in jazz festivals throughout the world. She starred as Mimi in the 1988 film La Boheme and played The Angel in Peter Eotvos' opera Angels in America in 2004 in Paris." [Source]

Opera Singers Important To "Christmas In Washington" History

Clamma Dale

Performing for Presidents of the United States has long been a duty and service that comes with great honor for classical musicians for more than a century. Particularly highlighted during the holiday season in December each year since 1981, opera singers have played an integral part of the concert Christmas in Washington. Standing alongside fellow musicians from virtually every genre of the music world to celebrate holiday favorites has brought the world of opera to larger audiences via television. Taking a look back over the years, the following singers have been fortunate enough to be part of this American tradition: Frederica von Stade (1984), Clamma Dale (1986), Kathleen Battle (1988), Barbara Hendricks (1990), Dawn Upshaw (1995) Ruth Ann Swenson (1996), Thomas Hampson (1997), Harolyn Blackwell (1998), Charlotte Church (2001), Renée Fleming (2003),  and Andrea Bocelli (2010). Take a look at some of the

Kathleen Battle

performances after the jump. "One of two annual holiday specials produced by George Stevens, Jr. (the other being the Kennedy Center Honors), the variety show first aired in 1981 on NBC before moving to its current home on TNT in 1998. Recorded in Washington, D.C. at the National Building Museum, on the second Sunday of each December before being re-edited for later broadcast, Christmas in Washington is a one-hour concert featuring artists from musical genres. Each guest perform at least one solo, but the marquee performer usually has one or two more songs. The show also has at least one guest from the world of opera. Each of the musical performances are backed by a full orchestra and chorus. The show's finale consists of a medley performed by all the musical guests before

Frederica von Stade

the attendees-of-honor, the President of the United States and the First Lady, make a closing statement. Recent events have benefited Children's National Medical Center. The show also has a host. For many years, the show was hosted by Dr. Phil and his wife, Robin. However, since 2009, the show has had a single host. The 2013 edition featured Hugh Jackman as host and The Backstreet Boys as marquee performers, marking the first time in six years that a group has been featured as marquee performers. The show airs live on pay-per-view internationally and in most major cities, after which a re-edited 42-minute version (with commercials in a one-hour slot) airs on the aforementioned TNT network." [Source, Source, Source, Source, Source]  

Renee Fleming performing during the Christmas in Washington at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., in 2003. | gettyimages.com

Last-Minute Holiday Shopping Ideas From Heavenly Voices On High

Purchase the album here.
Recommended track: "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

If you want to turn the frequency up this holiday season, check out the plethora of recordings from divas both past and present. From the latest release by Measha Brueggergosman to the Germanic overtones of Rita Streich, Maria Stader, and Anneliese Rothenberger, high notes during the holidays will ensure everyone has a holly jolly time. Check out more than 30 albums after the jump to give you instant holiday spirit through sacred seasonal music or christmas classics. Each one is linked to the full digital version to allow you to either choose the entire package or simply download the tracks you enjoy most. You can even make a compilation off the recommended tracks from each selection. Joyeux Noël, Buon Natale, Frohe Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad and с рождеством! Remember to share the music with someone you love this holiday season.

Barbara Hendricks Biography Finally Reaches American Shores

In November 2010, Barbara Hendricks released her memoirs in France under the title Ma voie - Mémoires. Now for the first time in America, an English translation has been released called Lifting My Voice. Information about the book: "Growing up African American in segregated Arkansas in the 1950s, Barbara Hendricks witnessed firsthand the painful struggle for civil rights. After graduation from the Juilliard School of Music, Hendricks immediately won a number of important international prizes, and began performing in recitals and operas throughout the world. A Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, she is as devoted to humanitarian work as she is to her music. Always the anti-diva, Hendricks is a down-to-earth and straightforward woman, whether singing Mozart or black spirituals. She challenges stereotypes and puts the music first and presents a warm, engaging, and honest self-portrait of one of the great women of music." [Source] The Wall Street Journal offers a review of the Lifting My Voice, along with Jessye Norman's new book Stand Up Straight and Sing!, here. A beautiful photo of Barbara Hendricks at the 65th Cannes Film Festival and a musical selection are after the jump.

Highly Fashionable Opera Divas On The Cover Of A Magazine

Kathleen Battle (Japan, 1992)	Barbara Hendricks (Paris, 1987)
Anna Netrebko (Russia, 2012)	Renée Fleming (USA, 2005)

It's pretty typical to find opera sopranos gracing the covers of industry magazines in glamorous gowns and jewels, but it is a rare sight to see these divas go mainstream with coverage the likes of Tatler, Vogue, Esquire, and Town & Country. Here we have some wonderful samples of ladies who truly reached the zenith of popularity and gave good face for these leading publications. We didn't forget the men. Be sure to check out a special cover (not for the faint of heart...) after the jump. 

Happy Birthday: Barbara Hendricks

"Qui la voce...Vien diletto"
I Puritani (Bellini)

Soprano Barbara Hendricks was born November 20, 1948, in Stephens, Arkansas. She graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and chemistry at the age of 20. She then attended Juilliard School of Music in New York, where she studied with mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel and participated in master classes led by soprano Maria Callas. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in music. In 1974, Hendricks made her professional operatic debut in Europe at the Glyndebourne Festival in Cavalli’s La Calisto and in America at the San Francisco Opera in Cavalli's Ormindo. During her career, she has appeared at major opera houses throughout the world, including the Opéra national de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and La Scala. In 1998 she sang Liu in the historical performance of Turandot at the Forbidden City in Beijing. Hendricks has performed more than twenty roles, twelve of which she has recorded,

"Je veux vivre"
Roméo et Juilette (Gounod)

including Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Ilia (Idomeneo), Antonia (Les Contes d'Hoffman), Micaela (Carmen), Manon (Manon), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Liù (Turandot) and Gilda (Rigoletto). Her portrayal of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro was her debut role in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg and Munich, as well as the role she sang in the last performances that the late Karl Böhm conducted of this opera. She appeared as Mimì in the Luigi Comencini film for La Bohème and in 1995 she sang the role of Anne Truelove in the Swedish film Rucklarens väg, an adaptation of Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. In 2007, she appeared in the film Disengagement by Amos Gitai and starring Juliette Binoche. She also recorded Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde which is the main theme for the film. She was a member of the jury at

"Cantilena"
Bachianas Brasileiras (Villa-Lobos)

the International Film Festival in Cannes 1999, presided by David Cronenberg. Barbara Hendricks has toured Japan with von Karajan (1977), Bernstein (1985), with the Vienna State Opera (1986) and the Hamburg Opera (1996). In 1974, she sang the American premiere of Gilbert Amy's Un Espace Déployé with the Chicago Symphony and Sir Georg Solti, who invited her back for the world premiere of the American Bicentennial Commission of David Del Tredici's Final Alice, which she subsequently performed with the Boston, Philadelphia and Cleveland Symphonies, and the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. She sang the American premiere of the Dies Irae of Penderecki in 1976 with the Los Angeles Philarmonic and Zubin Mehta. She gave the world premiere of Tobias Picker's The Rain in the Trees with Lorin Maazel and the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1996; as a special guest of Lord Menuhin, she premiered

"Elle a fui, la tourterelle"
Les Contes d'Hoffman (Offenbach)

works by five internationally known composers, dedicated to Lord Menuhin for his 80th Birthday Celebration at the closing concert of the Lincoln Center Music Festival; and in 1997, the world premiere in Japan, of songs by young Japanese composer Mari Takano. In 2000 she performed Sven-David Sandström's Mölna Elegy commissioned for her by the Gotland Chamber Festival. She performed in 2002 the world premiere of Bruno Mantovani’s Das erschaft der Dichter nicht commissioned for her by the Ensemble Intercontemporain of Paris. In addition to her busy concert and opera schedule in Europe and in the United States, she alternates every other year with extensive tours to the Far East or Latin America and performs regularly at international music festivals worldwide. Since her 1974 New York Town Hall debut, Barbara Hendricks has been acclaimed as one of the leading and most active recitalists of her generation and in addition to her

"Canzonetta sull'aria"
Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart)
with Eugenia Moldoveanu

vast repertoire of German Lieder she is also known as a leading interpreter and staunch promoter of French, American and Scandinavian music. The pianists with whom she has performed and recorded include Dmitri Alexeev, Michel Béroff, Yefim Bronfman, Michel Dalberto, Youri Egorov, Ralf Gothoni, Radu Lupu, Maria Joao Pires, Roland Pöntinen, Staffan Scheja, Andras Schiff and Peter Serkin. Because of her love for chamber music, she regularly participates and also organises chamber music festivals with friends who share her passion. Barbara Hendricks has performed her extensive orchestral repertoire with all of the leading conductors and orchestras of our time. She is one of today's best-selling recording artists and has worked with conductors such as Barenboim, Bernstein, Davis, Dorati, Giulini, Haitink, Karajan, Maazel, Mehta, Sawallisch and Solti. She made her jazz debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1994 and has since then performed regularly in

"Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" (Schubert)

renowned jazz festivals throughout the world with the Magnus Lindgren Quartet. In 1975 she made her first recording for Decca of Clara in Porgy and Bess with Lorin Maazel conducting the Cleveland Symphony. The first collaboration with EMI (now known as EMI Classics) was in 1978 with the recording of the voice of heaven in Verdi's Don Carlo conducted by Herbert Van Karajan with Mirella Freni, Jose Carerras and the Berlin Philharmonic. Although she continued to record with other companies, Deutsche Gramaphone, Telarc, Teldec, Erato, CBS (Sony today), in 1983 EMI FRANCE offered her an exclusive contract for solo recordings. She has made nearly eighty recordings of opera, more than twelve roles of her active repertoire, including Gluck, Mozart, Puccini, Bizet, Lalo, Donizetti, Strauss, recitals of Schubert, Strauss, Wolf, Mozart, Fauré. Debussy, Duparc, Ravel, Grieg, Sibelius, Nielsen, many orchestra and oratorio works with the most prestigeous conductors and orchestras of

"Après un rêve" (Fauré)

our time, as well as jazz, operetta and Negro spirituals. More than fifty of these have been for EMI. In January 2006, she left EMI, and created the new label Arte Verum for which she records exclusively. Hendricks also performs jazz music and made her jazz debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1994. Since that time, she has performed at major jazz festivals around the world. Hendricks is also known for her love of chamber music and has organized a number of chamber music festivals. In March 2000 she added Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at the Nice Opera with Vladimir Chernov. In 2004 she premiered Arvo Pärt’s l’Abbé Agathon for eight cellos commissioned for her by the Festival L’Ensembles de Violoncelles in France. At the end of 2004 she will sing the part of The Angel in the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’s opera, Angel based on the Tony Kushner play Angels in America at the Châtelet Theatre, Paris. After nearly 20 years of

"Sometimes I feel like
a motherless child" (spiritual)

service to the cause of refugees and her untiring support for the UNHCR she has been named Honorary Ambassador For Life by the UNHCR and will be given special tasks that demand her long unparalleled experience and commitment. At the end of 1991 and 1993, she gave two solidarity concerts in war-ridden former Yugoslavia (Dubrovnik and Sarajevo). In 1998 she founded the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation to personalise her struggle for the prevention of conflicts in the world and to facilitate reconciliation and enduring peace where conflicts have already occurred. In 2001, at the special request of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kofi Annan, she sang for the Nobel Prize ceremony and gala concert in Oslo, and in May 2002 for the East Timor Independence Day Ceremony. She has received numerous awards for her artistic achievements and humanitarian work: Doctorat Honoris Causa from the

"I Feel Pretty"
West Side Story (Bernstein)

University of Louvain in Belgium (1990), Doctor in Law from the University of Dundee in Scotland (1992), Doctor of Music from the Nebraska Wesleyan University (1988), and Doctorat Honoris Causa from the University of Grenoble in France (1996). Honorary Doctor of Music from the Juilliard School of Music in New York (2000). Since 1990, she has been a Member of the Swedish Academy of Music. In 1986, the French government made Barbara Hendricks a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, and in 1992, she was awarded the rank of Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by President François Mitterrand. In 2000 she was The Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (Spain) recipient for her advocacy for human rights and for the contribution of her artistic work to mankind's cultural heritage. In 2001 she received the Lions Club International Award to encourage the actions of her foundation. The University of Gerona, Spain, awarded her the Premio Internacional Xifra Heras in 2004, given to persons who embody the characteristics of humanity, humility and honesty. In November 2010, she released an autobiography title Ma Voie: Mémories. She has lived in Europe since 1977 and currently lives on Lake Geneva in Switzerland with her husband and three children. She is also a citizen of Sweden. [Source, Source] Career timeline highlights after the jump.

"I Love My Man [Billie's Blues]" (Holiday)

Barbara Hendricks Releases New Book

"Comment la petite fille aux pieds nus de l’Arkansas issue d’un monde « interdit aux Negroes » a conquis les plus grandes scènes internationales ? Barbara Hendricks raconte son parcours hors du commun: son enfance, son travail avec Karajan, Bernstein, les coulisses de l’opéra, son combat pour les droits de l’Homme, ses rencontres avec Mitterrand, Clinton, Maria Callas, Aung Sung Suu Kyi. A travers ce destin de femme libre, de chanteuse, de militante et de mère, Barbara Hendricks a tracé sa voie."