Mimi Lerner (May 20, 1945 – March 29, 2007
) was a
Polish-American
Polish Americans () are Americans who either have total or partial Polish ancestry, or are citizens of the Republic of Poland. There are an estimated 8.81 million self-identified Polish Americans, representing about 2.67% of the U.S. population, ...
mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...
, and later head of the voice department at
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
.
Life and career
Lerner was born Emilia Lipczer in 1945 in
Sambir, Ukraine to
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
parents.
At the time of her birth, her family had been hiding for several years in the woods to avoid
Nazi persecution, and Lerner's first year of life was spent living in secret in the forest.
Her grandparents died in
Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe.
The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...
in Poland.
After the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the family moved to Paris where they resided for seven years.
Lerner and her immediate family moved to the United States and settled in the
Bronx
The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...
in 1953.
She attended the
High School of Music & Art
The High School of Music & Art, informally known as Music & Art (or M&A), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the High S ...
in Manhattan before pursuing studies in music at
Queens College
Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing.
Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...
(QC).
There she earned a
Bachelor of Music Education in the late 1960s.
While a student at Queens College she attended a performance by the
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra is resident at Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District. Since 2008, the orchestra's music director is Manfred Ho ...
at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
in 1967 where she met her future husband, the flautist Martin Lerner. After completing her degree at QC, she moved to Pittsburgh and married Martin in 1969.
She was teaching in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
while earning a master's degree at
Carnegie Mellon
Carnegie may refer to:
People
*Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name
**Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist
* Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan
Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie
* ...
. What started as a singing hobby led to her debut at the
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through its 2013 bankruptcy, and again since 2016 when it was revived.
The opera company, dubbed "the peopl ...
in 1979, singing Sextus in ''
La clemenza di Tito
(''The Clemency of Titus''), K. 621, is an ''opera seria'' in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Caterino Mazzolà, after Pietro Metastasio. Mozart completed the work in the midst of composing ''Die Zauberfl ...
''.
Later NYCO assignments included Adalgisa in ''
Norma Norma may refer to:
* Norma (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
** Norma Lizbeth Ramos, a Mexican bullying victim
Astronomy
*Norma (constellation)
* 555 Norma, a minor asteroid
* Cygnus Arm or Norma Arm, a spiral ...
'', Bradamante in ''
Alcina
''Alcina'' (Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis, HWV 34) is a 1735 opera by George Frideric Handel. Handel used the libretto of ''L'isola di Alcina'', a work set to music in 1728 in Rome by Riccardo Broschi, which he had acquired a year later during his t ...
'', Smeton in ''
Anna Bolena
''Anna Bolena'' is a tragic opera (''tragedia lirica'') in two acts composed by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's ''Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena'' and Alessandro Pepoli's ''Anna Bolena'', ...
'', and leading roles in the ''Central Park'' trilogy (which consists of
Deborah Drattell and
Wendy Wasserstein
Wendy Wasserstein (October 18, 1950 – January 30, 2006) was an American playwright. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 ...
's ''
The Festival of Regrets'',
Michael Torke
Michael Torke (; born September 22, 1961) is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism.
Torke was born in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended Wilson Elementary School, graduated from Wauwatosa East High ...
and
A. R. Gurney's ''Strawberry Fields'', and
Robert Beaser and
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally (November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater" and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced," M ...
's ''
The Food of Love'').
Since the early 1980s, she was a regular guest artist with opera companies throughout the United States, including the
Dallas Opera
The Dallas Opera is an American opera company located in Dallas, Texas. The company performs at the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, one venue of the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
History
The company was founded in 1957 as the Dallas Civic ...
,
Glimmerglass Opera
The Glimmerglass Festival (formerly known as Glimmerglass Opera) is an American opera company. Founded in 1975 by Peter Macris, the Glimmerglass Festival presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake nort ...
, the
Houston Grand Opera, the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an American opera company based in New York City, currently resident at the Metropolitan Opera House (Lincoln Center), Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Referred ...
, the
Opera Theater of Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh Opera
Pittsburgh Opera is an American opera company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh Opera gives performances in several venues, primarily at the Benedum Center, with other performances at the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts Sch ...
, the
Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby (conductor), John Crosby, oversaw the building of the f ...
,
Seattle Opera
Seattle Opera is an American opera company based in Seattle, Washington. The company's season runs from August through late May, comprising five or six operas of eight to ten performances each, often featuring double casts in major roles to all ...
, and the
Washington National Opera
Washington National Opera (WNO) is an American opera company in Washington, D.C. Formerly the Opera Society of Washington and the Washington Opera, the company received Congressional designation as the National Opera Company in 2000. Performance ...
. She appeared on the international stage at
La Scala
La Scala (, , ; officially , ) is a historic opera house in Milan, Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as (, which previously was Santa Maria della Scala, Milan, a church). The premiere performa ...
, the
Théâtre du Châtelet, and the
Glyndebourne Festival
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an annual opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.
History
Under the supervision of the Christie family, the festival has been held annually since 1934, e ...
.
Death
She died in the Pittsburgh neighborhood of
Oakland
Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
from complications of a
heart tumor, which had been diagnosed a dozen years earlier. She was 61 years old.
See also
*
The Rossini Bicentennial Birthday Gala
References
External links
*
Interview with Mimi Lerner June 23, 1980
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Mimi
1945 births
2007 deaths
American people of Polish-Jewish descent
American operatic mezzo-sopranos
Polish emigrants to the United States
Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Singers from New York City
Musicians from the Bronx
Deaths from heart cancer
Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania
Jewish opera singers
20th-century American women opera singers