Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Kathleen Ferrier/archive1
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Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953) was an English contralto who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist. She began singing professionally in 1937, after winning a singing competition. During the Second World War she performed regularly with the Council for the Encouragement of the Arts (CEMA). In 1946 she made her stage debut as Lucretia in the Glyndebourne Festival world premiere of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. A year later she appeared as Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; these remained her only two operatic roles. As a recitalist, Ferrier focussed on works by Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar. She formed close working relationships Sir John Barbirolli, Bruno Walter and the accompanist Gerald Moore. She became known internationally through her three tours of the United States and her many visits to continental Europe. She continued to perform and record after being diagnosed with breast cancer in March 1951. Her death in October 1953 was a shock to the music world. Among her many memorials, the Kathleen Ferrier Cancer Research Fund was launched in May 1954, and the Kathleen Ferrier Scholarship Fund makes annual awards to aspiring young professional singers. (Full article...)