Thomas Hampson Bestowed With Honorary Doctorate

Hampson receiving honor in Boston 
(Photo: Andrew Hurlbut)

"Baritone Thomas Hampson, recently honored as a Metropolitan Opera Guild 'Met Mastersinger,' will receive an honorary Doctor of Music degree from New England Conservatory,in a ceremony presided over by President Tony Woodcock that takes place during a masterclass Hampson will lead for voice and opera students at 2 pm in NEC’s Brown Hall. The event marks Hampson’s second visit to NEC, the baritone having previously directed a Richard P. and Claire W. Morse Masterclass in April 2013." The event took place on January 18, 2015. "Born in Elkhart, Indiana, Hampson grew up in Spokane, Washington, where he enrolled at Eastern Washington State College (now Eastern Washington University) in Cheney, majoring in political science/government. Concurrently, Hampson earned a BFA in Voice Performance at Fort Wright College under the tutelage of Sister Marietta Coyle. During the summers of 1978 and 1979, he studied under Gwendolyn Koldowsky and Martial Singher at the Music Academy of the West, where he won the Lotte Lehmann Award. He then continued his studies at the University of Southern California, where he worked with vocal coach Jack Metz and the baritone Horst Gunther, a lifelong mentor. In 1980, as a consequence of winning the San Francisco Opera audition, he completed in the Merola Opera Program, in which he met Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. In 1981, he was one of the winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions national finals." [Source, Source]