Grace Bumbry obituary

Mezzo-soprano Grace Bumbry died in Vienna, Austria on May 7, 2023. She was 86 years old. The circumstances surrounding her death were not revealed. She was recently hospitalized after suffering an acute ischemic stroke as a result of a fall.

Bumpry graduated from the famous Charles Sumner High School, the first black high school west of the Mississippi, on January 4, 1937.

She later ascribed her “vocal prowess” to Kenneth Billups, her voice teacher at Sumner (together with Armand Tokatyan of Santa Barbara).

At the prompting of Billups and her choir teacher, Sara Hopes, she joined and won a teen talent contest sponsored by St. Louis radio station KMOX when she was 17.

The first-place prize was a $1000 war bond, a trip to New York, and a tuition to the St. Louis School of Music, but she was denied admission because she was black.

Embarrassed, the contest organizers arranged for her to sing Verdi’s aria “O don fatale” from Don Carlos on Arthur Godfrey’s nationally broadcast Talent Scouts program. Because of the popularity of that performance, I was given the opportunity to study at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts.

She 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.

She also recorded music for the Bizet opera Carmen Jones, as well as operetta (Johan Strauss II’s Der Zigeunerbaron), oratorio (Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Judas Maccabeus), and a pop album.

Bumbry was honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

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.

On December 5, 2021, she paid tribute to her Operatic friend Justino Diaz, who was one of five people honored at the 2021 Kennedy Center Honors that night.

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