Grammy award-winning Jessye Normans career has been one of meteoric musical highs. The possessor of a gloriously rich and powerful voice that has swept her to the summit of the classical world, she is blessed with an uncommonly wide vocal range that, when allied to her statuesque bearing and commanding stage presence, has made her an incomparable modern interpreter of most of the operatic repertory, from Wagner to Strauss, as well as a celebrated recitalist of classical song.
Born in 1945 Augusta, Georgia, the daughter of an insurance salesman and a school teacher, Jessye Mae Norman came into a family of accomplished musicians and began learning the piano at an early age. A precocious talent, after nearly winning a singing competition in Philadelphia, Jessye was awarded a full scholarship to Howard University in Washington D.C. where her love and knowledge of music would grow and her obvious ability would flourish.
After education she followed an increasingly well-trodden route for young American singers and came to Europe, where she established herself by winning a competition in Munich and signing up with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, making her operatic debut later that year in Tannhuser. What followed has been a career of astonishing longevity and inventiveness, encompassing most of operas great woman roles, and establishing hers as perhaps the greatest contemporary female voice in the world of classical music. Stand Up Straight and Sing tells the story of Normans extraordinary journey in her own inimitable voice.
