BU's Curtin Wins Vosgerchian Award

Soprano Phyllis Curtin, artistic director of the Opera Institute and dean emerita of Boston University's School for the Arts, has won the 1997-98 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award, administered by the Office for the Arts at Harvard and Radcliffe.

Curtin, the seventh Vosgerchian Award winner, pursued a major career on international operatic and concert stages for 38 years. Highlights include participation in the world premieres of several operas, including Floyd's Susannah and Milhaud's La Mère coupable (The Guilty Mother). Curtin also sang in the American premieres of Britten's Peter Grimes and War Requiem (with the Boston Symphony Orchestra), and of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 (with The Philadelphia Orchestra). Her recordings of the Shostakovich and of Ginastera's Milena (with the Denver Symphony) earned Grammy nominations.

Since 1964, Curtin has served as artist-in-residence at the Tanglewood Music Center (Lenox, Mass.). A former head of the Opera Program at the Yale School of Music, she has also taught in Canada, China, England, and Russia. Shortly after the paralyzing Blizzard of 1978, Curtin came to Harvard by train to keep two master-class dates with the Learning From Performers program.

The Luise Vosgerchian Award, created in 1986 during Vosgerchian's tenure as the Walter W. Naumburg Professor of Music, brings outstanding teachers here from around the world to give guest lectures or master classes. Recipients are chosen with an eye toward the exceptional talents and values of one of Harvard's best-loved teachers (now the Naumburg Professor Emerita).