Mezzo-soprano Joanna Simon, an acclaimed opera and concert singer who grew up in a musically talented family that included sisters Carly and Lucy, died Wednesday in Manhattan. she was 85 years old.
Simon’s first cousin, Mary Asheim, said the cause was thyroid cancer. Ms. Simon died in hospital the day before Lucy Simon died at her home in Pierpont, New York at the age of 82.
Ms. Simon was one of the most famous American opera singers to emerge in the 1960s. Art funding was plentiful, audiences were packed, and shiny new music palaces were opening. yoke.
In 1962, he made his professional debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the New York City Opera. That same year, he won the Marian Anderson Award for promising young singers.
She stood out for her wide range of material, her mastery of foreign languages, and her willingness to take risks with contemporary composers. She was the first to sing the role of Pantasilea, a 16th-century Italian prostitute. “Bomarzo” It was composed by Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera when it debuted with the Washington Opera Society (now the Washington National Opera) in 1967. That performance earned her worldwide acclaim and she has performed again in New York and Buenos Aires.
She was equated with a concert singer performing classical and contemporary songs, including “Over the Rainbow”.
In 1975, days before her New York recital, she tripped on the rug of her apartment and broke her leg. Rather than cancel the show, she took the stage on her crutches.
“As soon as I made sure my voice wasn’t affected, I knew I was going to carry on,” she told The New York Times.
Her easygoing grace and gorgeous good looks made her a popular guest on television talk shows. She sang on “The Tonight Show” and “The Dick Cavett Show,” sat down for interviews, and performed the final original on “The Ed Sullivan Show” before it aired in 1971. He was a popular performer on television.
In embracing popular culture, Ms. Simon hasn’t strayed too far from her singer-songwriter sister. Carly Her Simon gained immortal fame in the early 1970s with her pop hits such as “Anticipation” and “You’re So Vain.” Lucy Simon sang with Carly early on and later found success as a composer. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1991 for her best original score for the musical The Secret Garden.
The sisters sometimes crossed paths. Joanna sang backup on Carly’s album ‘No Secrets’ (1972) and Lucy’s album ‘Lucy Simon’ (1975) and Carly sang Joanna’s performance on her 1971 ‘The Mike Douglas Show’ I played the guitar offstage during. Curley wrote her own opera “Romulus”. Hunt” was released as an album in 1993. A character named Joanna, a mezzo-soprano, appeared.
The sisters grew up singing and playing music together, maintaining a close relationship into adulthood and avoiding the petty jealousies that often prey on siblings engaged in similar jobs.
“When Lucy was 16, I envied her hourglass figure,” Joanna Simon told The Toronto Star in 1985. But those feelings lasted for 20 minutes and I didn’t dwell on them. I had no expectations so I was not disappointed. ”
Joanna Elizabeth Simon was born on October 20, 1936 in Manhattan. He was the eldest son of Richard L. Simon, publisher and founder of Simon & Schuster, and Andrea (Heinemann) Simon, a singer and housewife. The family lived in Manhattan and later in the Fieldston neighborhood of the Bronx.
Simon’s children got into music early. Joanna was able to play the piano when she was six years old. In high school, she thought she was going to be an actress, but by college, she turned to musical comedy with Sarah Lawrence (who later also attended Carly). Her voice coach then encouraged her to consider opera.
After graduating in 1958 with a degree in literature, she continued her opera training in Vienna before returning to New York to launch her career.
Simon, who lived in Manhattan, married Gerald Walker, a novelist and editor of the New York Times Magazine, in 1976. He passed away in his 2004. She was dating Walter Cronkite until her death in 2009.
In addition to his sister Carly, he has a stepson, David Walker, and a stepgrandson. Her brother, photojournalist Peter, passed away in 2018.
Mr. Simon continued to sing professionally until the early 1980s, after which he gradually retreated, retiring in 1986 to join PBS’s “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” as a cultural correspondent. In 1991, he won an Emmy Award for his documentary on creativity and manic depression.
Funding for art programming at MacNeil/Lehrer eventually dried up and her position was reduced. She explored her new career and became a real estate broker. Within six months, she told The Times in 1997, she sold the property for $6 million. She later became Vice President of her company, her Fox Residential Group.
Her musical background wasn’t the key to her newfound success, but she said it helped at times.
“When I take a client to a potential apartment, I go to the apartment next door and speak out,” she said. “If they can hear me, it doesn’t matter.”