“To strive for excellence, that’s the answer. If you strive for excellence, that means that you are determined. You will find a way to get to your goal, even if it means having to turn down some really great offers. You have to live with that, as you have to live with yourself.” (Grace Bumbry)

Born on January 4th, 1937, in St. Louis, Missouri, Grace Bumbry is known for her outstanding renditions of both mezzosoprano and soprano roles and her remarkable stage presence. Bumbry trained in classical piano beginning at age 7 but determined she would become a singer after seeing Marian Anderson in a concert.

Encouraged by all who knew her singing, Grace, age 16, won first prize in a local radio contest, which awarded her the opportunity to appear on the then famous “Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show”, where she sang “O Don Fatale” from Verdi’s Don Carlo.

Grace then began her studies at the Boston University and then at the Northwestern University where she met the lady who would change her life forever. Lotte Lehmann, while giving a masterclass, heard her and invited her to Santa Barbara, California to study at the “Music Academy of the West”, where she was shaped into one of the music world’s rare jewels.

Through the influence of Jacqueline Kennedy and the American Embassy in Paris, Bumbry was granted an audition at the Paris Opera, where she was immediately employed. Bumbry made her professional debut in 1960 at the Paris Opera, where she gained recognition for her portrayal of Amneris in Verdi’s Aida. She was the first person of colour to sing at the house.

Bumbry made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London in 1963 as Eboli in Don Carlo, alongside Boris Christoff as the king and Tito Gobbi as Posa, in a 1958 production by Luchino Visconti. In 1964, she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera as Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and at the Salzburg Festival as Verdi’s Lady Macbeth, opposite Fischer-Dieskau’s Macbeth. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1965, again as Eboli.

During her mezzosoprano career, she sang Amneris in Aida, Eboli in Don Carlo, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, the title role in Carmen, Dalila in Samson et Dalilia, Orfeo in Orfeo et Eurydice, Adalgisa in Norma, Selika in L’Africaine, the title role in Hérodiade and Didon in Les Troyens, to name a few.

In the 1970s, Bumbry, having recorded many soprano arias, began taking on soprano roles on stage. The first official soprano role was the title role in Salome by Richard Strauss at the Royal Opera House in 1970. She then appeared for the first time as Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in 1971, and then at La Scala in 1974. Later roles at the Metropolitan Opera included Leonora in both Il trovatore and La forza del destino and Bess in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

As a dramatic soprano she sang the title role in Salome, Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Abigaille in Nabucco, the title roles in Medea, La Vestale, Jenufa, La Gioconda, Tosca, and Turandot, Ariane in Ariane et Barbe-bleu, Leonora in Il Trovatore and in La Forza del Destino,and Cassandra in Les Troyens with the Paris Opera in its full 5 and ½ hour presentation. She gave another tour de force performance at Covent Garden when she sang Norma and Adalgisa in the same production of Norma within a period of two weeks.

After Bumbry gave up mezzosoprano roles, with the exception of Princess Eboli, she was often asked how she reconciles mixing the repertoire of the two vocal categories. Her answer, “As long as I have the ability from nature, I simply do what many others in the 19th century did before me. I don’t think singers like Grisi, Pasta, Malibran and some others ever worried about belonging to a specific category”, has not changed.

Making headlines all over the world, she helped to define the word DIVA with her art and style. Of course, let us not forget the international jet-setter, Grace, who became the owner of the second ever made Lamborghini, furs, designer gowns made by Yves Saint Laurent, Heinz Riva and Bill Blass, and jewels of the most exquisite quality.

In 2009 she founded The Grace Bumbry Vocal and Opera Academy in Berlin, where she collaborated with the University of Arts, in a masterclass atmosphere for voice and role study and preparation designed for the ‘big voice’. These classes were given twice a year in Berlin at the Universität der Künste.

On October 20th, 2022, Bumbry was on a flight from Vienna to New York when she had a stroke. Her health declined over the following months, and she died from related complications at a hospital in Vienna on May 7th, 2023, at age 86.