A noted US voice coach departs at 84
RIPThe mezzo-soprano Willene Gunn, director of the opera programme at San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 30 years, has died aftr undergoing heart surgery.
A sparkling mezzo with a West Coast career, she produced numerous students who went on to the Met and the world stage.
In recent years, she was director of Brava! Opera.
Thank you for mentioning this remarkable, and somewhat magical, woman!
Her influence is greater than most SD readers will know…for decades, careers, inspired by her, have spanned the globe.
Many of us were able to support ourselves, and sometimes even prosper, in a rare and challenging profession.
Her influence encompassed stage craft and compassion – she was a “life coach” long before that phrase really existed.
In San Francisco Willene taught technical stage craft and drama, her friend Carolyn Lewis blessed some of us with vocal technique and heart, her friend Kathy Cathcart guided many of us through the orchestral labyrinth of coordination and projection.
All together, they taught discipline, listening, authenticity, knowing the rules before you bend them, and above all else, they lived and breathed compassion and humor.
Bless them for enriching so many lives.
Thank you for believing in those of us who seemed unlikely to prevail.
(Willene, I’m guessing that Carolyn has been waiting for you with a bottle of red wine chilled in the heavenly fridge…yes, I remember…some stories are priceless…hug each other for me…and rest well, dear one…)
Thank you to Ms Nagelstad for this extraordinary reminder of the power of positive mentoring in our field. As an opera singer and now University Professor, I see so many colleagues handle their future artists with near authoritarian contempt, insisting on “breaking” a student to insure their loyalty. That is of course incompatible with mentoring and training artists to enable their best work and expression. Your review is deeply inspiring. Thank you!