William Warfield

William Caesar Warfield (born January 22, 1920 in West Helena , Arkansas , † August 25, 2002 in Chicago ) was an American musical performer ( bass baritone ) and singing teacher .

Life

Warfield took piano lessons as a child and, after winning the National Music Educators League's singing competition in 1938, studied at the Eastman School of Music . In 1942 he was drafted into the US Army and, due to his language skills, joined the military reconnaissance service. From 1946 he led a touring company with Harold Rome's musical Call Me Mister .

He then worked as a pianist and singer in various other shows until it debuted in New York's Warfield's Down Hall in 1950 . The success brought him an invitation from the Australian Broadcast Corporation to tour Australia. This was followed by his first appearance in the MGM production film adaptation of the musical Show Boat from 1951, in which he sang Paul Robeson's legendary song Ol 'Man River . In Germany, the film was released under the title Mississippi-Melodie .

He then appeared in George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess with Leontyne Price , whom he married in 1952. The couple separated again in 1958 but did not divorce until 1972. Warfield went on six concert tours on behalf of the United States Department of State. He appeared in performances of Porgy and Bess in New York (1961) and Vienna (1965 and 1974), and toured with a German-language version of Show Boat.

On a European tour of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein , he appeared as a speaker in Aaron Copland's A Lincoln Portrait ; with the piece he won a Grammy in 1984 . On recordings he sang parts from Handel's Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy and parts from Mozart's Requiem with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Bruno Walter . He also sang the world premieres at Collections Old American Songs by Aaron Copland (1952 and 1958). In his final years he recorded the jazz album Something Within Me and was a narrator in Dreamer: A Portrait of Langston Hughes .

From 1975 Warfield taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , from 1992 at Northwestern University in Chicago. He was also a member of the board of the National Association of Negro Musicians and the Schiller Institute . In 1991 he published his autobiography My Music & My Life . As a singer, he remained active in his apartment until his death as a result of a fall.

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personal data
SURNAME	Warfield, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Warfield, William Caesar (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American musical performer (bass-baritone) and vocal teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	January 22, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH	West Helena , Arkansas
DATE OF DEATH	August 25, 2002
Place of death	Chicago