A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson began her musical career as a violist. She was a consummate recitalist and concert singer and a riveting operatic performer with a repertoire that ranged from the Baroque to the contemporary. On the opera stage she excelled in rôles as diverse as Ottavia (Monteverdi), Ariodante (Handel), Sesto (Mozart), Carmen (Bizet), Myrtle Wilson (Harbison) and Didon (Berlioz).

Recognised by Musical America as the 2001 Vocalist of the Year, she performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine, with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Colin Davis, and the world première of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and t...