

In October of 2000, Miss Horne returned to the town of her birth, Bradford, Pennsylvania where a street on the public square was named in her honor. Miss Horne sang at the Reagan, Bush and Clinton White Houses and at President Clinton's inauguration in 1993. In 1992, she received the National Medal of the Arts from President Bush and the Endowment for the Arts. President Clinton named her a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1995.
#Youtunes marilyn horn full
Throughout all of these celebrations, she continues to be one of America's most beloved artists, and one of the busiest, with a full schedule of concerts, recitals and teaching activities.Īs one of the world's most popular performers, Marilyn Horne has received numerous accolades and honors in the arts as well as academia. The 2003-2004 season marks several milestones for Marilyn Horne, including her 70th birthday on January 16th, 2004, the 50th anniversary of her operatic debut at the age of 20 with the Los Angeles Guild Opera, and the 10th Anniversary of both the Marilyn Horne Foundation and her position as chair of the voice department at the Music Academy of the West, of which she is an alumnus. This ability to sing trouser roles which had originally been written for castrati meant Horne was known for resurrected rarely-heard operas, which partly led to her being awarded the first Golden Plaque of the Rossini Foundation in 1982, naming her “the greatest Rossini singer in the world.She has been called the "Star Spangled Singer" and "the Heifetz of singers." In 2002, after a career in which for over four decades MARILYN HORNE had dominated her field, Opera News said, "Marilyn Horne - whose face and song have been in the light - in so many places, in so many styles, through so many media, for so many years - may be the most influential singer in American history." Horne specialized in Bel Canto and Coloratura roles in operas by Handel, Rossini and Bellini, particularly “Trouser roles.” This earned her the nickname “General Horne,” given the martial nature of characters such as Rinaldo, Orlando and Arsace (“ Semiramide” ). She donated her personal archives to the University of Pittsburgh, where the Marilyn Horne Museum was opened to the public in 2017. Horne retired from the concert stage in 1999,and during retirement she has been director the voice program at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. On her 60th birthday, Horne launched The Marilyn Horne Foundation, which aims to nurture young opera talent. Both Horne and Luciano Pavarotti traveled to London to perform with Sutherland as she made her Covent Garden farewell in a performance of Strauss’s “ Die Fledermaus” on New Year’s Eve in 1990. In 1984, Horne performed in “ Rinaldo ,” the first opera by Handel to be performed at the Met.

Sutherland was also in the cast for Horne’s Met Debut in 1970, with Horne as Adalgisa and Sutherland as the title role in Bellini’s “ Norma.” This long-awaited debut was preceded by performances in San Francisco, Milan, London and Boston, in repertoire ranging from Meyerbeer’s Le prophète to Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. In 1961, Horne performed in concert with Joan Sutherland, a pairing that was to prove the first of many. Capturing the attention of Igor Stravinsky, Horne was invited to perform at the 1956 Venice Biennale, before then going on to spend three years with the opera company in Gelsenkirchen. Her first opera engagement came later that same year, singing in Smetana’s “ The Bartered Bride” for Los Angeles Guild Opera. Horne was a background singer for sitcoms, but found her first big break at age 20, when she dubbed the songs for the title character of “ Carmen Jones ,” Hammerstein’s adaptation of the opera by Bizet. In her own words, “I grew up in Hollywood.” She moved to California in her childhood, and went on to study at the University of Southern California, as well as with Lotte Lehmann. She was born in Bradford, Pennsylvania on January 16, 1934. Bel Canto mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne is one of the great champions of Rossini’s operas.
