Helen Boatwright

American soprano Helen Boatwright had an unusually long career that included opera and oratorio, but she was known primarily as a recitalist and teacher. She made her operatic debut at Tanglewood in 1942 and sang a full recital to celebrate her 90th birthday in 2006. She is especially remembered as an advocate for modern American song, including the works of her husband, violinist and composer Henry Boatwright. Her 1954 recording of the songs of Charles Ives, accompanied by pianist John Kirkpatrick, was the first full album devoted to Ives' songs, works that were largely unknown at the time. She was born Helena Johanna Strassburger to a musical family in Sheboygan, WI, and received bachelor's and master's degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She made her New York Town Hall debut in 1967 singing the rarely heard cycle, Das Marienleben, by Paul Hindemith, a composer with whom she had worked extensively. Conductors with whom she performed included Leonard Bernstein, Robert Shaw, Leopold Stokowski, Seiji Ozawa, and Zubin Mehta. In 1964, she joined the faculty of Syracuse University where her husband was the Dean of the School of Music. The university granted her an honorary doctorate in 2003. She also taught at the Eastman School of Music, Cornell University, and the Peabody Conservatory.
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