Mary Simmons

Mary Simmons (born July 29, 1928 in Philadelphia ) is an American-Canadian singer ( soprano ).

Live and act

Simmons studied violin with Louis Angeloty in Philadelphia and singing with Therese Schnabel in New York for ten years . She had her first appearance in Canada in 1946 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra , the following year she appeared with the Toronto Jewish Folk Choir and the TSO under Emil Gartner . In 1953 she was hired by the CBC Opera Company for the title role of a radio performance of the opera Turandot .

In 1954 she made her debut as a concert singer in New York and as an opera singer as Magda in The Consul in Vermont. From 1955 she lived in Toronto. In 1956 she sang the soprano part in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Ernest MacMillan's farewell concert with the TSO and appeared as Cressida in William Walton's Troilus and Cressida (1957), Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana (1961), Sieglinde in Die Walküre (1962) and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (1964). With the Toronto Symphony Orchestra , she sang excerpts from Alban Berg's Wozzek as a Canadian premiere in 1957 , the world premiere of John Weinzweig's Wine of Peace with the CBC Symphony Orchestra in 1958 , and the premiere of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony with the TSO and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir under Heinz Unger (1964) and with the TSO the Canadian premiere of Leonard Bernstein's First Symphony (Jere miah) . Simmons also had great success as a lieder singer, especially as an interpreter of Schubert's Winterreise .

Web links

• Mary Simmons ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .