Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953) was an English contralto who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist. Her early death from cancer, at the height of her fame, was a considerable shock to the music world. Ferrier 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); her career developed considerably after the conductor Malcolm Sargent recommended her to the influential Ibbs and Tillett concert management agency. In 1946 she made her stage debut as Lucretia in the Glyndebourne Festival premiere of Benjamin Britten's opera The Rape of Lucretia. A year later she sang Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice; these were her only two operatic roles. As a recitalist 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 final public appearance was as Orfeo, at the Royal Opera House in February 1953; she died in October that year. Among her many memorials, the Kathleen Ferrier Cancer Research Fund was launched in May 1954; the Kathleen Ferrier Scholarship Fund, administered by the Royal Philharmonic Society, makes annual awards to aspiring young professional singers.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Ferrier
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1519:
Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés established a settlement in Mexico, naming it "Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz" ("Rich village of the True Cross"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracruz%2C_Veracruz
1889:
Over 50,000 people rushed to claim a piece of the available two million acres (8,000 km2) in the Unassigned Lands, the present-day U.S. state of Oklahoma, entirely founding the brand-new Oklahoma City. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City
1911:
Tsinghua University , one of the leading universities in mainland China, was founded, funded by an unexpected surplus in indemnities paid by the Qing Dynasty to the United States as a result of the Boxer Rebellion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University
1945:
About 600 prisoners of the Jasenovac concentration camp in the Independent State of Croatia revolted, but only 80 managed to escape while the other 520 were killed by the Croatian Ustaše regime. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_concentration_camp
2004:
Flammable cargo exploded at Yongcheon Station in Ryongchon, North Korea, killing 160 people. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryongchon_disaster
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crosswordese (n): The jargon of crossword puzzle answers, classically consisting of rare, archaic, or dialectal words http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crosswordese
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