Pretty yende soprano biography examples
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10 Questions for Soprano Pretty Yende
Quite a catchy tunesmith, that Delibes: for those of an older generation, like myself, it was Lakmé's Bell Song which parents remembered from old films, occasioning in my case a trip to Sutton Record Library to find it on The World of Joan Sutherland. I became infatuated with opera on the spot, but I didn’t become a soprano. Yende did, and from a careful training in Cape Town and a key role as "Summertime" Clara in Porgy and Bess, she blossomed at La Scala’s Young Artists’ Training Programme under superstar eyes and stepped in with a month’s notice to sing opposite Juan Diego Flórez at the Met.
She hasn’t looked back, and to go with a beautiful voice that’s much richer than she or others first thought, a lyric soprano that can also cope with Sutherland-style coloratura, is a personality that’s both absolutely self-assured and totally adorable with it. Yes, she has the star quality, the professionalism and the staying power, you can be sure
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2019
On April 20, 2018, Decca Gold (Universal Music Group) releases an album of original lullabies written by Lullaby Project participants and performed by leading artists, including Pretty Yende, Joyce DiDonato, Fiona Apple, the Brentano String Quartet, Lawrence Brownlee, Rosanne Cash, Janice Freeman, Rhiannon Giddens, Angélique Kidjo, Patti LuPone, Natalie Merchant, Dianne Reeves, Gilberto Santa Rosa and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The recording was produced by Glen Roven, Ira Yuspeh, and Mitch Yuspeh.
The recording is inspired bygd the Lullaby Project, a schema of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute which pairs pregnant women, new mothers, and family members with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting maternal health, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project features fifteen lullabies written by parents from across New York City, as performed by Fiona A
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Pretty Yende, as photographed by Kim Fox.
ABOUT 13 years ago, Pretty Yende heard opera for the first time and resolved to make it her career: “It was as if my soul knew what it was even though my mind and body didn’t,” she says.
These days, Yende is one of the country’s proudest exports. She was the first South African to be invited to take part in the young artists programme at the Accademia Teatro La Scala in Milan, is the first African artist ever to graduate from La Scala’s Academy of Lyric Opera, and has delighted audiences in many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses in Moscow, Vienna, Milan, New York, London, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Barcelona and other cities.
In 2013, she was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver by President Jacob Zuma for, “Her excellent achievement and international acclaim in the field of world opera and serving as a role model to aspiring young musicians.”
Yende returned to South Africa briefly in August and joined students from her alm