Joyce Mathis
{{Short description|American soprano}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Joyce Mathis
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date text|1944}}
| birth_place = Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.
| death_date = March 1994
| death_place =
| occupation = Operatic soprano
| education = {{plainlist|
}}
| awards = Marian Anderson Award
Young Concert Artists
}}
Joyce Mathis (1944{{cite encyclopedia |last=Southern |first=Eileen|author-link=Eileen Southern|encyclopedia=Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians |date=1982 |isbn= 978-0-313-21339-7|publisher=Greenwood Press |location= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_XZAAAAMAAJ |title=Mathis, Joyce |pages=}} – before April 2009{{cite news|title=Obituaries: Otis, Margaret Ann "Granny"|url=https://www.chattanoogan.com/2009/4/24/149716/Otis-Margaret-Ann-Granny.aspx|date=April 25, 2009|newspaper=The Chattanoogan}}) was an American soprano who was a concert artist, recitalist, and opera singer from the 1960s into the early 1990s. She is considered a part of the first generation of black classical singers to achieve success in the United States; breaking down racial barriers within the field of classical music.{{cite news|title=African American singers reap benefit from pioneer artists|newspaper=The Chicago Defender|date=December 18, 1999|page=29}} She won several notable singing competitions, including the Marian Anderson Award in 1967 and the Young Concert Artists in 1968. In 1970 she recorded the role of the High Priestess in Verdi's Aida alongside Leontyne Price and Plácido Domingo. Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ned Rorem wrote his song cycle Women's Voices for her in 1975. In 1976 she created the role of Celestina in Roger Ames's opera Amistad at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She appeared frequently in performances with Opera Ebony and the Boys Choir of Harlem in addition to touring widely as a recitalist and concert soprano.
Early life and career
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Ezra and Nellie Mathis, Joyce Mathis graduated from the Howard School of Academics and Technology in 1961.{{cite news|title=Miss Joyce Mathis Auditioned for Metropolitan Opera Co.|newspaper=Atlanta Daily World|date=February 9, 1964|page=A3}} After studying singing in her native city with J. Oscar Miller, she earned a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Central State University in 1965. She then pursued graduate studies at the Juilliard School where she was a pupil of Florence Kimball, the teacher of Leontyne Price.{{cite web|url= https://www.wnyc.org/story/joyce-mathis-and-james-depreist/ |title= Joyce Mathis and James DePreist |publisher=New York Public Radio|date=November 6, 1968}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/26/archives/florence-kimball-teacher-dies-at-87-former-singer-gave-classes-at.html|title=Florence Kimball Teacher, Dies At 87|author=Allen Hughes|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 26, 1977}} Price mentored Mathis in the early part of her career.
In 1964 Mathis was a regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.{{cite news|title=Top Musical Artists Featured at Festival|newspaper=Pittsburgh Courier|date=April 25, 1964|page=5}} In 1967 she won the Marian Anderson Award.{{cite magazine|title=Competition Winners|magazine=Central Office Service Bulletin|date=January 1968|page=13}} That same year she was the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Egmont with the Cosmopolitan Young Peoples Symphony Orchestra under Chilean conductor Juan Pablo Izquierdo at Philharmonic Hall.{{cite news|author=A. H.|date=February 27, 1967|page=34|title=Izquierdo Conducts Young Peoples Concert|newspaper=The New York Times}} She also performed with the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall in 1967 in the role of Clotilda in Bellini's Norma with Elena Souliotis in the title role and Nancy Tatum as Adalgisa;{{cite news|title=Opera: Suliotis as Norma: 2 Old Normas Attend Carnegie Concert|author=Harold C. Schonberg|author-link=Harold C. Schonberg|date=November 10, 1967|newspaper=The New York Times|page=55}} and she created the role of Gismonda in Thomas Pasatieri's Padrevia at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.{{cite book|title= Operas in English: A Dictionary|author=Margaret Ross Griffel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8bQAwAAQBAJ&q=Gismonda+Joyce+Mathis&pg=PA364|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8325-3}}
In 1968 Mathis won the Young Concert Artists competition which led to her New York recital debut at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in March 1969.{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/04/01/78334823.html|title=Program of Song by Joyce Mathis|author=Raymond Ericson|date=April 1, 1969|newspaper=The New York Times}} In 1968 she performed in concerts with the Symphony of the New World, the first racially integrated orchestra in the United States, in concerts of Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss and works by John Lewis and Arthur Cunningham.{{cite news|title=Symphony of New World Announces 3 Concerts|newspaper=New York Amsterdam News|date= September 28, 1968|page=21}}{{cite news|title=Music in Review: Symphony of the New World|author=Perdita Duncan|newspaper=New York Amsterdam News|date=November 23, 1968|page=36}} In 1969 she performed in major concert venues throughout the United States as a part of the "American Youth Performs" concert tour sponsored by American Airlines.{{cite news|title=New Soprano Sensation to Appear Here|newspaper=Los Angeles Sentinel|date= February 13, 1969|page=A7}}{{cite news|title=Concerts and Recitals|author=Peter Gorner|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=December 8, 1968|page=f11}} That same year she performed the Hugo Weisgall's opera monodrama The Stronger in a concert organized by the League of Composers at the 92nd Street Y.{{cite news|title=Ensemble Offers Schoenberg Suite: 'Septet' and Weisgall Piece in League-ISCM Concert|author=Donal Henahan|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 20, 1969|page=60}}
Later life and career
In 1970 Mathis recorded the role of the High Priestess in Giuseppe Verdi's Aida with Leontyne Price in the title role, Luciano Pavarotti as Radamès, Grace Bumbry as Amneris, and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/other/article/leontyne-price-interview-it-s-terrible-but-you-know-i-just-love-the-sound-of-my-own-voice|title=A classic meeting with Leontyne Price|author=Alan Blyth|date=August 1971|magazine=Gramophone}} That same year she was the featured soloist in the inaugural concert of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra with conductor Leonard Slatkin, performing works by Mozart, Puccini, and Gershwin.{{cite web|url=https://www.leonardslatkin.com/timeline/|title=Leonard Slatkin Timeline|website=leonardslatkin.com}} In November 1970, she was the soprano soloist in the world premiere of George Rochberg's Symphony No. 3 at Lincoln Center.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/26/archives/juilliard-offers-rochbergs-no-3-abraham-kaplan-conducts-premiere-of.html|title=Juilliard Offers Rochberg's No. 3 |author=Allen Hughes|date=November 26, 1970|newspaper=The New York Times}}
In 1973 Mathis and William Warfield were the featured performers at the National Association of Negro Musicians convention in Atlanta with conductor Everett Lee.{{cite news|title=Music News of Interest|newspaper=Oakland Post|date= August 29, 1973|page=5|author=William Duncan Allen}} Ned Rorem's song cycle Women's Voices was written for her; a work which Rorem described as the composition "closest to his heart".{{cite news|title=Talented performers make for a memorable 'Evening'|author=Dan Tucker|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=March 30, 1996|page=D25}} She debuted the work at Alice Tully Hall on November 4, 1976.{{cite news|url=https://nyti.ms/4d8DpLp|access-date=April 22, 2024|title=Recital: Joyce Mathis in Premiere of Rorem Work|date=November 6, 1976|newspaper=The New York Times|page=9|author=Robert Sherman|author-link=Robert Sherman (music critic)}} In describing what it was like to hear Mathis perform this cycle, Rorem stated, "It is so to speak, an uncomfortable privilege—a pleasurable torture—to sit in the audience and hear a really good performer execute one's intimate sounds, hitherto so private, now hopelessly so public."{{cite news|title='Now I Can Die Official', Says Pulitzer-Winner Ned Rorem|author=John Gruen|author-link=John Jonas Gruen|newspaper=The New York Times|date=May 30, 1976|page=60}}
In 1976 Mathis created the role of Celestina in the world premiere of Roger Ames's opera Amistad at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.{{cite news|title=The Making of an Opera: The Making Of a Local Opera|author=Bob Arnebeck|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=December 20, 1976|page=B1}} In 1977 she gave a concert of music at Fisk University in celebration of the inauguration of Walter J. Leonard as the ninth president of the institution.{{cite news|newspaper=Tri-State Defender|title=Fisk: Celebrates inauguration of ninth prexy|date=October 15, 1977|page=2}} In 1979 she gave a recital at Alice Tully Hall.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/24/archives/recital-joyce-mathis-heard-in-song-program.html|access-date=April 22, 2024|title=Recital: Joyce Mathis Heard In Song Program|author=Peter G. Davis|date=September 24, 1979|newspaper=The New York Times}}
In 1982 Mathis was the soprano soloist in the world premiere of George Walker's Cantata for Soprano, Tenor, Boys Choir, and Chamber Orchestra with tenor Walter Turnbull, the Boys Choir of Harlem, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and conductor Warren George Wilson.{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1982/06/23/230457.html|title=Boys Choir of Harlem Presents Bach Cantatas|author=Bernard Holland|date=June 23, 1982|newspaper=The New York Times}} She performed that work again in 1986 at Chicago's Orchestra Hall with conductor Paul Freeman, the Orchestra of Illinois, and the Boys Choir of Harlem.{{cite news|title=Overnight Chicago: 'Symphony in Black' flaws can't hide memorable joys|author=Howard Reich|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=October 16, 1986|page=B9}} In February 1983 she performed scenes from Mark Fax's opera Til Victory Is Won with Opera Ebony and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1983/02/15/231025.html|title=Opera Ebony: Black History|author=Bernard Holland|date=February 15, 1983|newspaper=The New York Times}} The following December she performed the role Siebel in Gounod's Faust with that company at Aaron Davis Hall of the City College of New York.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/01/arts/opera-faust.html|title=Opera: Faust|author=Edward Rothstein|date=December 1, 1983|newspaper=The New York Times}} She performed with Opera Ebony again in 1987 as Irina in Weill's Lost in the Stars.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/15/theater/music-lost-in-the-stars-at-city-college.html|title=Music: Lost in the Stars at City College|author=Bernard Holland|date=November 15, 1987|newspaper=The New York Times}}
In 1993 Mathis was the soprano soloist in Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras with the Boys Choir of Harlem at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.{{cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1993/01/20/069293.html|title=Celebration of Black Culture|author=Stephen Holden|date=January 20, 1993|newspaper=The New York Times}} In 1994 the Festival Ensemble of the American Academy of Arts and Letters dedicated a performance of Haydn's The Creation to her.{{cite news|title=Festival Ensemble dedicates Haydn oratorio to Joyce Mathis|newspaper=New York Amsterdam News|date=June 4, 1994|page=25}}
The April 2009 obituary for her sister Margaret in The Chattanoogan mentions that Joyce Mathis preceded her in death.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=mn0001228644}}
- {{Discogs artist|2994207}}
- {{YouTube|7w8wRX1UeA8|1969 live recording (audio)}}, "Summertime"
- [https://yca.org/artist/1968-mathis-joyce/ Two photographs], Young Concert Artists
{{Portal bar|Biography|Opera}}
{{Authority control|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathis, Joyce}}
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:American operatic sopranos
Category:African-American women opera singers
Category:Central State University alumni