Is Grace Bumbry still alive? What happened to Grace Bumbry?

Grace Melzia Bumbry, an American opera singer who was a prominent soprano and a top mezzo-soprano of her day, died on May 7, 2023, at the age of 86. David Lee Brewer, her publicist confirmed her demise. He did not reveal a cause of death. Nevertheless, Bumbry suffered a stroke in October 2022.

Bumbry rose to international prominence when Wieland Wagner (Richard Wagner’s grandson) cast her as Venus in Tannhäuser at Bayreuth in 1961, at the age of 24, making her the first black soprano to debut there, earning her the moniker “Black Venus.”

Much of her recorded legacy comes from her mezzo period, which includes at least two Carmens and three Amnerises (possibly her most frequently performed and recorded role onstage), Venus (with Anja Silja as Elisabeth, at the 1962 Bayreuth Festival), Eboli and Orfeo, and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall in April 1964.

Among other distinctions, she received the UNESCO Award, the Academy of Music of the West’s Outstanding Alumna Award, Italy’s Premio Giuseppe Verdi, and the French government’s Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.

In 1972, she won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

She was among those honored with the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors on December 6, 2009, for her contributions to the performing arts.

She was also inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

More recently, she had also become known as a recitalist and interpreter of lieder, and as a teacher.

She lived in Switzerland for many years before moving to Vienna, Austria, where she died on May 7, 2023.