Jessye Norman

Jessye Norman (photograph by Carol Friedman)

Jessye Norman is one of America’s greatest and most accomplished classical singers, with five Grammy Awards, dozens of international prizes, and a Kennedy Center Honor (its youngest-ever recipient) among her countless awards. She was born in segregated Augusta, Georgia during the Jim Crow era, and was inspired by singer Marian Anderson and by her loving and supportive parents who insisted that all four of their children live up to the highest possible standards. She pursued music at Howard University and the University of Michigan, and achieved early success with a contract from the Berlin Opera. Her career since then has reached from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera to concerts in honor of the Dalai Lama, the bicentennial of the French republic, as well as multi-media presentations of American roots music.

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