Born September 15, 1945, in Augusta, Georgia, to the late Silas Norman Sr. and Janie Mae King Norman. Jessye Norman attended C. T. Walker Elementary School and Lucy Craft Laney High School in Augusta. She completed her undergraduate studies at Howard University in 1967. She then studied at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and earned a master’s degree in music from the University of Michigan in 1968. Her church home was the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Augusta. Music and the church were vital interests in Jessye Norman’s early life.

Born September 15, 1945, in Augusta, Georgia, to the late Silas Norman Sr. and Janie Mae King Norman. Jessye attended C. T. Walker Elementary School and Lucy Laney High School in Augusta. She completed her undergraduate studies at Howard University in 1967. She then studied at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore and earned a master's degree in music from the University of Michigan in 1968. Her church home was the Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Augusta. Music and the church were vital interests in Jessye’s early life.Her mother played piano, and her father sang in the church choir. By the age of four, Jessye was already singing gospel songs in the church choir. As a young girl she enjoyed listening to live radio broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera. Jessye was brilliant, curious, brave, generous, and purposeful. From an early age, she devoted herself to serious pursuits and had the discipline to follow through on her goals. Her siblings never knew a time when she was not serious about music. Her junior high school music teacher, Rosa Sanders, saw Jessye’s potential early on and provided pivotal encouragement. Even as Jessye became an international superstar, she kept up with her family. She always invited immediate and extended family members to join her for performances whenever she was nearby. She was a kind and generous host to many friends and family for countless holiday dinners and other special occasions. Her stellar performance in ompetitions and auditions as a young artist earned her a full scholarship to study music at Howard and, later, an invitation to join the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, where she made her professional operatic debut. Over the following decades, Jessye cultivated a spectacular career filled with unique and unprecedented achievements. She won great acclaim for her performances in a wide range of leading roles with the world’s premier opera companies; in solo recitals and in concerts of her cherished classical repertoire with preeminent orchestras across the globe; and in artistic excursions into jazz and American musical theatre. Jessye was renowned not only for her vocal virtuosity and versatility but also for her strong work ethic, thorough preparation, and deep understanding of language, texts, and context. She was an adept student of language and culture, and she was embraced by many countries as one of their own.Jessye’s memoir, Stand Up Straight and Sing!, was published in 2014.

If you want to know more…