Kathleen Battle

Kathleen Deanna Battle, born August 13, 1948, in Portsmouth, Ohio, is an American operatic soprano who built one of the most celebrated vocal careers of the late twentieth century. The youngest of seven children, Battle grew up in a household shaped by her father's work as a steelworker and her mother's involvement in the gospel music of their African Methodist Episcopal church. At Portsmouth High School, music teacher Charles P. Varney recognized her exceptional talent and became a formative mentor. Battle went on to earn both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied voice with Franklin Bens and worked with Italo Tajo. She later studied singing with Daniel Ferro in New York.

Before her performing career took hold, Battle spent time as a teacher at an inner-city public school in Cincinnati, instructing fifth and sixth grade music students beginning in 1971 while continuing private voice study. Her professional trajectory shifted in 1972 when conductor Thomas Schippers, who was holding auditions in Cincinnati, engaged her to sing as soprano soloist in Brahms' German Requiem at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Her performance there on July 9, 1972 launched her professional career. In the years that followed, she sang orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland, and in 1973 received a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music to support her development as an artist.

Schippers introduced Battle to conductor James Levine, who selected her to perform in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's May Festival in 1974. That introduction began a professional association and friendship between Battle and Levine that spanned two decades and encompassed recordings, recitals, and concert engagements in Salzburg, Ravinia, and Carnegie Hall. Battle made her professional operatic debut in 1975 as Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with the Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit. That same year she appeared on Broadway in Treemonisha. Her New York City Opera debut followed in 1976 as Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, and 1977 brought both her San Francisco Opera debut as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera and her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Shepherd in Wagner's Tannhäuser, the latter conducted by Levine. In 1979 she made her Glyndebourne Festival and UK debut singing Nerina in Haydn's La fedeltà premiata.

Throughout the 1980s Battle expanded her repertoire and performed at major venues worldwide. She made her Zürich Opera debut in 1980 as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and her Salzburg Festival debut in 1982 in Così fan tutte, followed days later by an appearance in one of the Festival's Mozart Matinee concerts. In 1985 she served as soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, conducted by Herbert von Karajan, and that same year made her Royal Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, a performance that earned her the Laurence Olivier Award. Karajan invited her to sing Johann Strauss' Voices of Spring at the Vienna New Year's Day concert in 1987. At the Metropolitan Opera, Battle sang more than 150 performances in 13 different operas during this period, including the company's first production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. She also performed at the San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Vienna State Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin, among others.

Her recording work during the 1980s brought significant recognition. She received three Grammy Awards for Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart (1986), Salzburg Recital (1987), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1987). Her 1986 collaboration with guitarist Christopher Parkening, Pleasures of Their Company, received a Grammy nomination for Classical Album of the Year.

The 1990s brought further milestones. In 1990, Battle and soprano Jessye Norman performed a program of spirituals at Carnegie Hall with Levine conducting. Her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut took place on April 27, 1991, as part of the hall's Centennial Festival, where she performed works by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, and Richard Strauss alongside traditional spirituals, accompanied by pianist Margo Garrett. Contralto Marian Anderson was present in the audience that evening, and Battle dedicated Rachmaninoff's "In the Silence of the Secret Night" to her. The recording of that recital earned Battle her fourth Grammy Award. In January 1992 she premiered André Previn's song cycle Honey and Rue, with lyrics by Toni Morrison, a work commissioned by Carnegie Hall specifically for her. In December 1993 she performed at Carnegie Hall alongside Martin Katz, Kenny Barron, Grady Tate, Grover Washington Jr., and David Williams in a program featuring music by Handel, Haydn, Duke Ellington, and Christmas spirituals. She also collaborated with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis on a recording of baroque arias titled Baroque Duet.

Battle was dismissed from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. After a 22-year absence from the company, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016 to perform a concert of spirituals, and performed there again in May 2024.