Cancer claims US bass-baritone, 73
RIPThe American bass-baritone Jake Gardner, a leading singer at Oper der Stadt Köln, has died of brain cancer, diagnosed six months ago.
Jake sang in several major US houses and at Glyndebourne, Netherlands Opera and Vienna Volksoper. He also appeared in Peter Brooks’s film ‘Le Tragédie de Carmen.’
His death, announced by his wife Jill, is widely mourned.
It is with unbearable sorrow and grief that I now must announce the passing of my dear beautiful husband, Bass-Baritone Jake Gardner, to the world. Jake died at home on November 2, 2021 at 6:15pm from a heart attack after a 6-month private battle with brain cancer. He was 73 years old.
Our lives changed forever on May 10, 2021 when Jake’s visual impairment sent us to the hospital and a subsequent MRI revealed a brain tumor in his upper right parietal lobe. A biopsy on May 17th confirmed the cancer was a stage 4 glioblastoma multiforme. Half of the tumor was surgically removed on May 27th and our summer was spent taking 6-weeks of radiation and chemotherapy as well as discovering new alternative therapies and supplements as we worked with incredible cancer coaches.
Jake was so valiant in this fight and we were so hopeful, but alas…
Even as my heart breaks and I am lost without my North Star, I am also so blessed to have had the honor to care for Jake and to love him deeply to the end. He was my Prince and the LOVE of my life. Truly, the LOVE of a lifetime who will live forever in my heart until we are reunited again.
Go, fly with the angels, dear Jake, and be at peace. You will never be forgotten.
So sad – what wonderful person and artist Jake was, and what beautiful words Jill wrote about him.
Absolutely dreadful and this frightful form of cancer is on the rise.
Jake and I were undergraduates at SUNY Potsdam back in the sixties I knew had gone on to a professional career as an operatic singer and heard his name from time to time. I went to artist management( not representing singers). It was very sad to hear of his passing and would like to pass on my condolences to his family. I also wondered what happened to his good friend Richard Taylor who was a tenor and undergrad at Potsdam at the same time.
Hi Bill, Richard died 2 or 3 years ago and Barry Blust earlier this year. xo
An excellent singer. In 1977 he created the role of the Earl of Moray in Thea Musgrave’s opera MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. He sings in the recording made the following year by the Virginia Opera.