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Joyce Mathis

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Joyce Mathis
Born1944 (1944)
Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
DiedMarch 1994
Education
OccupationOperatic soprano
AwardsMarian Anderson Award
Young Concert Artists

Joyce Mathis (1944[1] – before April 2009[2]) was an American soprano who was a concert artist, recitalist, and opera singer from the 1960s into the early 1990s. She is considered a part of the first generation of black classical singers to achieve success in the United States; breaking down racial barriers within the field of classical music.[3] She won several notable singing competitions, including the Marian Anderson Award in 1967 and the Young Concert Artists in 1968.[1] In 1970 she recorded the role of the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida alongside Leontyne Price and Plácido Domingo. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem wrote his song cycle Women's Voices for her in 1975. In 1976 she created the role of Celestina in Roger Ames's opera Amistad at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She appeared frequently in performances with Opera Ebony and the Boys Choir of Harlem in addition to touring widely as a recitalist and concert soprano.

Early life and career

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Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Ezra and Nellie Mathis, Joyce Mathis graduated from the Howard School of Academics and Technology in 1961.[4] After studying singing in her native city with J. Oscar Miller, she earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Central State University in 1965.[4] She then pursued graduate studies at the Juilliard School where she was a pupil of Florence Kimball, the teacher of Leontyne Price.[5][6] Price mentored Mathis in the early part of her career.[7]

In 1964 Mathis was a regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.[8] In 1967 she won the Marian Anderson Award.[9][1] That same year she was the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Egmont with the Cosmopolitan Young Peoples Symphony Orchestra under Chilean conductor Juan Pablo Izquierdo at Philharmonic Hall.[10] She also performed with the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall in 1967 in the role of Clotilda in Bellini's Norma with Elena Souliotis in the title role and Nancy Tatum as Adalgisa;[11] and she created the role of Gismonda in Thomas Pasatieri's Padrevia at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.[12]

In 1968 Mathis won the Young Concert Artists competition which led to her New York recital debut at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in March 1969.[13] In 1968 she performed in concerts with the Symphony of the New World, the first racially integrated orchestra in the United States, in concerts of Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss and works by John Lewis and Arthur Cunningham.[14][15] In 1969 she performed in major concert venues throughout the United States as a part of the "American Youth Performs" concert tour sponsored by American Airlines.[16][17] That same year she performed the Hugo Weisgall's opera monodrama The Stronger in a concert organized by the League of Composers at the 92nd Street Y.[18]

Later life and career

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In 1970 Mathis recorded the role of the High Priestess in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida with Leontyne Price in the title role, Luciano Pavarotti as Radamès, Grace Bumbry as Amneris, and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.[7] That same year she was the featured soloist in the inaugural concert of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra with conductor Leonard Slatkin, performing works by Mozart, Puccini, and Gershwin.[19] In November 1970, she was the soprano soloist in the world premiere of George Rochberg's Symphony No. 3 at Lincoln Center.[20]

In 1973 Mathis and William Warfield were the featured performers at the National Association of Negro Musicians convention in Atlanta with conductor Everett Lee.[21] Ned Rorem's song cycle Women's Voices was written for her; a work which Rorem described as the composition "closest to his heart".[22] She debuted the work at Alice Tully Hall on November 4, 1976.[23] In describing what it was like to hear Mathis perform this cycle, Rorem stated, "It is so to speak, an uncomfortable privilege—a pleasurable torture—to sit in the audience and hear a really good performer exexute one's intimate sounds, hitherto so private, now hopelessly so public."[24]

In 1976 Mathis created the role of Celestina in the world premiere of Roger Ames's opera Amistad at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.[25] In 1977 she gave a concert of music at Fisk University in celebration of the inauguration of Walter J. Leonard as the ninth president of the institution.[26] In 1979 she gave a recital at Alice Tully Hall.[27]

In 1982 Mathis was the soprano soloist in the world premiere of George Walker's Cantata for Soprano, Tenor, Boys Choir, and Chamber Orchestra with tenor Walter Turnbull, the Boys Choir of Harlem, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and conductor Warren George Wilson.[28] She performed that work again in 1986 at Chicago's Orchestra Hall with conductor Paul Freeman, the Orchestra of Illinois, and the Boys Choir of Harlem.[29] In February 1983 she performed scenes from Mark Fax's opera Til Victory Is Won with Opera Ebony and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.[30] The following December she performed the role Siebel in Gounod's Faust with that company at Aaron Davis Hall of the City College of New York.[31] She performed with Opera Ebony again in 1987 as Irina in Weill's Lost in the Stars.[32]

In 1993 Mathis was the soprano soloist in Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras with the Boys Choir of Harlem at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.[33] In 1994 the Festival Ensemble of the American Academy of Arts and Letters dedicated a performance of Haydn's The Creation to her.[34]

The April 2009 obituary for her sister Margaret in The Chattanoogan mentions that Joyce Mathis preceded her in death.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Southern, Eileen (1982). "Mathis, Joyce". Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-21339-7.
  2. ^ a b "Obituaries: Otis, Margaret Ann "Granny"". The Chattanoogan. April 25, 2009.
  3. ^ "African American singers reap benefit from pioneer artists". The Chicago Defender. December 18, 1999. p. 29.
  4. ^ a b "Miss Joyce Mathis Auditioned for Metropolitan Opera Co". Atlanta Daily World. February 9, 1964. p. A3.
  5. ^ "Joyce Mathis and James DePreist". New York Public Radio. November 6, 1968.
  6. ^ Allen Hughes (November 26, 1977). "Florence Kimball Teacher, Dies At 87". The New York Times.
  7. ^ a b Alan Blyth (August 1971). "A classic meeting with Leontyne Price". Gramophone.
  8. ^ "Top Musical Artists Featured at Festival". Pittsburgh Courier. April 25, 1964. p. 5.
  9. ^ "Competition Winners". Central Office Service Bulletin. January 1968. p. 13.
  10. ^ A. H. (February 27, 1967). "Izquierdo Conducts Young Peoples Concert". The New York Times. p. 34.
  11. ^ Harold C. Schonberg (November 10, 1967). "Opera: Suliotis as Norma: 2 Old Normas Attend Carnegie Concert". The New York Times. p. 55.
  12. ^ Margaret Ross Griffel (2012). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-8325-3.
  13. ^ Raymond Ericson (April 1, 1969). "Program of Song by Joyce Mathis". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "Symphony of New World Announces 3 Concerts". New York Amsterdam News. September 28, 1968. p. 21.
  15. ^ Perdita Duncan (November 23, 1968). "Music in Review: Symphony of the New World". New York Amsterdam News. p. 36.
  16. ^ "New Soprano Sensation to Appear Here". Los Angeles Sentinel. February 13, 1969. p. A7.
  17. ^ Peter Gorner (December 8, 1968). "Concerts and Recitals". Chicago Tribune. p. f11.
  18. ^ Donal Henahan (October 20, 1969). "Ensemble Offers Schoenberg Suite: 'Septet' and Weisgall Piece in League-ISCM Concert". The New York Times. p. 60.
  19. ^ "Leonard Slatkin Timeline". leonardslatkin.com.
  20. ^ Allen Hughes (November 26, 1970). "Juilliard Offers Rochberg's No. 3". The New York Times.
  21. ^ William Duncan Allen (August 29, 1973). "Music News of Interest". Oakland Post. p. 5.
  22. ^ Dan Tucker (March 30, 1996). "Talented performers make for a memorable 'Evening'". Chicago Tribune. p. D25.
  23. ^ Robert Sherman (November 6, 1976). "Recital: Joyce Mathis in Premiere of Rorem Work". The New York Times. p. 9. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  24. ^ John Gruen (May 30, 1976). "'Now I Can Die Official', Says Pulitzer-Winner Ned Rorem". The New York Times. p. 60.
  25. ^ Bob Arnebeck (December 20, 1976). "The Making of an Opera: The Making Of a Local Opera". The Washington Post. p. B1.
  26. ^ "Fisk: Celebrates inauguration of ninth prexy". Tri-State Defender. October 15, 1977. p. 2.
  27. ^ Peter G. Davis (September 24, 1979). "Recital: Joyce Mathis Heard In Song Program". The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  28. ^ Bernard Holland (June 23, 1982). "Boys Choir of Harlem Presents Bach Cantatas". The New York Times.
  29. ^ Howard Reich (October 16, 1986). "Overnight Chicago: 'Symphony in Black' flaws can't hide memorable joys". Chicago Tribune. p. B9.
  30. ^ Bernard Holland (February 15, 1983). "Opera Ebony: Black History". The New York Times.
  31. ^ Edward Rothstein (December 1, 1983). "Opera: Faust". The New York Times.
  32. ^ Bernard Holland (November 15, 1987). "Music: Lost in the Stars at City College". The New York Times.
  33. ^ Stephen Holden (January 20, 1993). "Celebration of Black Culture". The New York Times.
  34. ^ "Festival Ensemble dedicates Haydn oratorio to Joyce Mathis". New York Amsterdam News. June 4, 1994. p. 25.
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