Jeannette Vreeland (Soprano)

Born: September 30, 1896 - Los Angeles, California, USA
Died: July 20, 1939 - Denver, Colorado, USA

The American soprano, Jeannette Vreeland, received her first training from Perry Averill in Ossinning (New York). She then became a pupil of John Wilcox and Hetty Louise Sinf in Denver. Finally she studied with Percy Rector Stevens, with whom she married in 1921.

On April 22, 1922, Jeanette Vreeland sang the first radio concert from an airplane as she flew over New York City. In 1924 she had her concert debut with the New York Symphony Orchestra under Walter Damrosch. In 1925 she gave a glossful concert with songs and arias in the New York's Aeolian Hall. Since then she was considered as one of the most important concert and oratorio singer in the USA. She sang with such symphony orchestras as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Philadelphia Orchestra. Soon nobody could imagine the big American music festivals without her participation. Her big times were in the decade 1925-1935. In 1929 and 1931 she sang the soprano solo in L.v. Beethoven's 9^th Symphony in the New York's Lewisohn Stadium. She gave great concerts with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston. In May 1939 she suddenly got sick during a rehearsal to the Bethlehem Bach Festival. She went to the house of her parents, where she died shortly after.

Jeannette Vreeland's intelligent interpretation and the stylistic delivery of her excellent voice are documented on Victor records, for which she recorded exclusively (Gurrelieder by Arnold Schoenberg conducted by Leopold Stokowski, Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) by J.S. Bach conducted by Serge Koussevitzky, Missa Solemnis by L.v. Beethoven).

Source: Operissimo website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (September 2005)
Contributed by Yoël L. Arbeitman (September 2005); Manfred Krugmann (Photos 01-04, July 2011)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Serge Koussevitzky

Soprano

BWV 244

Links to other Sites