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(b Brockton, MA, USA, Nov 4, 1925). Albanian tenor and pedagogue. Born in the large Albanian immigrant colony in New England (USA), Athanasi returned as a child to his parents’ hometown of Korça, where he participated in its vibrant prewar choral, theatre, and sports scenes. During World War II, he performed with resistance groups singing patriotic and partisan songs and, in 1948, he was selected as a soloist in the newly formed National Army Ensemble by director Gaqo Avrazi. Athanasi was among a handful of young men in this ensemble to receive a scholarship to study in the Soviet Union, and following the completion of his degree in vocal performance at the Moscow State Conservatory in 1958, he was appointed soloist at Tirana’s Theatre of Opera and Ballet. He performed leading roles in premières of Albanian operas, and was active as a recitalist, performing a broad range of art music works from the Western European and Albanian repertories as well as arranged folk songs into the 1980s. In ...

(b Korça, Albania, Jan 24, 1935). Albanian tenor and pedagogue. Identified early as a talented singer in his hometown of Korça, he attended the Arts Lyceum ‘Jordan Misja’ in Tirana where he received his first formal training, with the pedagogue Mihal Ciko. In 1957 he received a scholarship to study at the Moscow State Conservatory, where he remained until 1961. On his return to Tirana, Çako was named soloist to the Theater of Opera and Ballet, where he performed a number of leading roles in foreign and Albanian operas during the 1960s and 1970s. Chief among his roles in Albanian operatic works were Dhimitër in Lulja e Kujtimit (by P. Jakova, 1961), Doda in Mrika (by P. Jakova, 1966), and Muji in Vjosa (by T. Daija, 1980). In addition to art music, he interpreted light popular songs and arrangements of folk songs throughout his career. Named as a pedagogue to Tirana’s State Conservatory in ...

Member of Corri family

(b Edinburgh, ?1784; d Baltimore, Feb 19, 1832). Italian composer, tenor, pianist, and teacher, son of Domenico Corri, and possibly twin brother of Montague Philip Corri. As P. Antony Corri he was well established as a composer in London from about 1802 to 1816, when many of his piano pieces and songs were published. His L’anima di musica (1810) is the most extensive piano tutor of its period, and ran to several editions. He was a founder of the London Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music in 1813, and was director of the Professional Society in 1816. He was expelled from the Philharmonic in December 1816 (due to a scandal probably involving his wife) and emigrated to the USA, where he settled in Baltimore by autumn 1817. There he was christened Arthur Clifton on 31 December 1817 and remarried the following day. He served as organist of the First Presbyterian Church (...

(b Bucharest, Romania, March 10, 1921; d Bucharest, July 6, 1998). Romanian soprano and teacher. She studied at the Bucharest Conservatory (1939–42) with Elena Saghin; in Geneva (1946) with Anna Maria Guglielmetti; and in Vienna (1947) with Kurt Nasor and Josef Krips. Her début performance took place in 1939 with a radio broadcast of lieder by Henri Duparc, Robert Schumann, and Alfred Alessandrescu; her concert stage début took place at the Romanian Atheneum (1941) alongside pianist Nicolae Rădulescu. Her operatic début took place in 1942 at the Romanian Opera in Bucharest, where she sang the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor under the baton of Jean Bobescu. She was a soloist for the Romania Choral Society in Bucharest from 1937 to 1942, after which she became a soloist for the Romanian Opera, becoming the company’s prima donna in 1945, a post she held until ...

(b Sarajevo, Bosnia, June 30, 1947). Bosnian soprano, opera soloist, and music pedagogue. She graduated in 1973 from the Music Academy Sarajevo (class of Bruna Špiler), where she also took the master’s degree in the field of solo singing in 1977. During her artistic career she achieved notable success singing the main soprano roles in the operas Il trovatore (G. Verdi), Ero s onog svijeta (J. Gotovac), The Bartered Bride (B. Smetana), The Marriage of Figaro (W.A. Mozart), and Madam Butterfly and La Boheme (G. Puccini). Her artistic activity was interrupted due to the wartime events in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. Her actions were diverted to performances within small artistic ensembles, which corresponded to the conditions of the social and cultural life of that time. She distinguished herself in appearances at the concerts of the Sarajevo Winter Festival, Summer Chamber Music (1993), and Days of Culture of the Czech Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (...

(b London, 1785; d London, Aug 2, 1845). English music theorist, translator, and instructor in musical composition, the pianoforte, the organ, and singing. The son of a dealer in old books, his interests in linguistics and music led him to learn foreign languages and translate music theory books. A self-taught multi-instrumentalist, he edited primers in sacred and secular harmony as well as the piano, the organ, singing, and choral singing. His books, issued mostly by the London music publisher Robert Cocks, were often completed, reedited, and reprinted over half a century, even after his death (his method for the pianoforte reached its 13th edition in 1849).

Hamilton was best known for his Dictionary of Two Thousand Italian, French, German, English, and Other Musical Terms (1842), which was expanded and republished several times. His translation of Czerny’s four-volume Piano Forte School Opus 500 method opened English-speaking students to German treatises on tempo and metronome markings, performance practice, and musical examples by Thalberg, Döhler, Henselt, Chopin, Taubert, Willmers, Liszt, Beethoven, and Handel. His collaboration with Czerny also resulted in the publication of ...

[František]

Member of Hauser family

(b Krasowitz [now Krasovice], nr Prague, Jan 12, 1794; d Freiburg, Aug 14, 1870). Bohemian baritone and teacher. Having studied with Tomášek in Prague, he sang first with the Prague opera (1817–21, making his début as Sarastro), then in Kassel (1821–5, under Spohr), Dresden (1825–6, under Weber), Frankfurt (1826–9) and Vienna (1829–32). In 1832 he visited London with Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient. Later engagements took him to Leipzig (1832–5, as regisseur as well as singer), Berlin (1835–6) and Breslau (1836–8). He also made regular guest appearances throughout Germany. On his retirement in 1838 he settled in Vienna as a singing teacher. In 1846 he was appointed director of the newly founded Munich Conservatory. On its reorganization after Wagner's arrival he retired in 1864 and lived at Karlsruhe and Freiburg. According to early critics his style was pure though he was considered cold as an actor; but he gave satisfaction to Weber and was later praised for his interpretations of Mozart's and Rossini's Figaro, Bertram, William Tell and Spohr's Faust. His wide interests won him the friendship of many leading artists and composers, including Mendelssohn, Schumann and Moritz Hauptmann, with whom he often corresponded. As a teacher he was much respected, and among those whom he instructed or advised were Henriette Sontag and Jenny Lind. Hauser's ...

(b Akron, OH, Nov 10, 1954). American baritone and teacher. He received his vocal training at the University of Houston where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. His teachers included Franco Corelli, Jean Preston, louis Quilico , and Michael Trimble. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1991 and has subsequently sung numerous roles there, including Germont (La traviata), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Rigoletto (Rigoletto). In 2009 he appeared in the premiere of André Previn’s opera Brief Encounter with Houston Grand Opera and in 2010 the premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s Séance on a Wet Afternoon with Opera Santa Barbara. In 2011 he performed William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge with the Rome Opera Theater. He has been recognized with awards from the William Sullivan–George London Foundation, the Loren L. Zachary Society, the Licia Albanese–Puccini Foundation, and the Bagby Foundation, and has also received a Bruce Yarnell Scholarship and a career grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. He has also worked as associate professor of voice at the University of Oklahoma....

(b Aberdeen, Scotland, Dec 11, 1946). Scottish tenor and pedagogue. Graduating in 1969 he studied the piano and the clarinet at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama; he won a scholarship to the RCM in voice, graduating Associate of the Royal College of Music (Hons) and a Postgraduate Diploma in 1972 and 1973, respectively. In 1973 a Gulbenkian Fellowship supported vocal study with Ernst Haeflinger in Munich, followed by vocal studies with renowned English tenor Sir Peter Pears from 1973 to 1986. He has enjoyed a longtime collaboration with Peter Maxwell Davies, creating roles in The Martyrdom of St Magnus (the title role, 1977), Solstice of Light (1979), The Lighthouse (1980), Into the Labyrinth (1983), Jacobite Rising (1997), and Sea Elegy (1998). He sang and recorded first performances from Benjamin Britten’s song canon (after Britten’s death), notably including the première performance of ‘Now sleeps the crimson petal’, which was excised from ...

(b Albion, NY, Oct 23, 1928; d Ashland, OR, Aug 12, 2000). American composer and tenor. Born into a musical family, he toured as a youth, appearing both as a pianist and a boy soprano. After attending the Eastman Preparatory School (1941–4), he was a pupil of Vivian Major and William Willett at SUNY, Fredonia (BM 1950), then of Wolfgang Niederste-Schee while on a tour of military duty in Frankfurt (1950–2). During this period he gave organ and piano recitals, and was a clarinetist in the 4th Division Infantry Band. At the Eastman School (MM 1954, DMus 1958) he studied with wayne Barlow , bernard Rogers , and howard Hanson . After holding several teaching positions he was a member of the music faculty of San Francisco State University (1959–80) and a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii (1970–1). He was active for many years as a concert tenor....

(b Banja Luka, Bosnia, July 25, 1940). Bosnian soprano, opera soloist, and music pedagogue. She completed her elementary and secondary music education in her native town. She began her studies in opera singing at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana (Slovenia), with Julije Beteto. After the second year, she continued her music education in Sarajevo, with Bruna Špiler. The distinctiveness of her talent was recognized early on, and she graduated at the top of her class. She took the master’s degree from the Department of Voice in 1967.

Upon completing her studies, with a Sarajevo Opera scholarship, she made her début in Jenufa (L. Janáček) in 1965. From that moment on, she was engaged as a soloist at the Sarajevo Opera and, from 1965 to 1968, sang the roles of Abigaille (Nabucco, G. Verdi), Katerina Ismailova (Katerina Ismailova, D. Shostakovich), and Floramye (Little Floramye, I. Tijardović). In ...

(Christian)

Member of Stockhausen family

(b Paris, July 22, 1826; d Frankfurt, Sept 22, 1906). German baritone, conductor, and teacher of Alsatian descent, son of Franz Stockhausen and Margarethe Stockhausen. He showed his musical gifts early and during his school years learnt singing and musical rudiments from his parents and the piano from Karl Kienzl, also having lessons on the organ, violin, and, later, the cello. In 1843 he visited Paris, where he was a pupil of Cramer for a short while. From 1844 he made Paris the centre of his musical education, spending some time at the Conservatoire (from 1845) but learning harmony from Matthäus Nagiller and singing from Manuel García outside the institution.

Stockhausen’s early concert successes were in Switzerland and England, beginning in 1848 with a performance of Elijah at Basle. In 1849 he followed García to London, and while in England he appeared before Queen Victoria. He sang again in Switzerland in the first half of ...