Kathleen Deanna Battle was born on August 13, 1948. She is an American soprano singer known for her unique singing voice and tone. She was born in Portsmouth, Ohio. Battle first gained attention for her performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her first opera performance in 1975. During the 1980s and early 1990s, she took on more roles as a lyric soprano and coloratura soprano. She was no longer part of the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. After that, she focused more on recordings and concerts. After not performing at the Met for 22 years, Battle sang a concert of spiritual songs at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016 and again in May 2024.

Life and career

Kathleen Battle was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and was the youngest of seven children. Her father worked in a steel factory, and her mother sang gospel music at their family's African Methodist Episcopal church. Battle attended Portsmouth High School, where her music teacher and mentor was Charles P. (Phil) Varney. In a 1985 interview with Time Magazine, Varney described the first time he heard the eight-year-old Battle sing. He said, "This tiny little girl sang so beautifully." Later, he told her, "God has blessed you with a gift. You must always sing." In the same interview, music critic Michael Walsh called Battle "the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world."

Battle earned a scholarship to the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music. There, she studied voice with Franklin Bens and worked with Italo Tajo. She majored in music education and later earned a master's degree in the same field. In 1971, she began teaching music to fifth- and sixth-grade students at an inner-city public school in Cincinnati. She continued to study voice privately while teaching. Later, she studied singing with Daniel Ferro in New York.

In 1972, during her second year as a teacher, a friend called her and told her that conductor Thomas Schippers was holding auditions in Cincinnati. At the audition, Schippers asked Battle to sing as the soprano soloist in Brahms' German Requiem at the 1972 Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy. Her performance there on July 9, 1972, began her professional career. In the following years, she performed in orchestral concerts in New York, Los Angeles, and Cleveland. In 1973, she received a grant from the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music to support her career. William Mullen, a judge on the grant panel, later said in 2004:

Thomas Schippers introduced Kathleen Battle to James Levine, another conductor. Levine chose Battle to sing in Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra's May Festival in 1974. This began a long friendship and professional partnership between Battle and Levine, which lasted 20 years. They worked together on recordings and performances at places like Salzburg, Ravinia, and Carnegie Hall. Battle made her professional operatic debut in 1975 as Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with the Michigan Opera Theatre in Detroit. She made her New York City Opera debut the next year as Susanna in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. In 1977, she performed as Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with the San Francisco Opera and as the Shepherd in Wagner's Tannhäuser with the Metropolitan Opera. The Tannhäuser performance was conducted by James Levine. Battle made her Glyndebourne Festival debut (and her first performance in the United Kingdom) in 1979, singing Nerina in Haydn's La fedeltà premiata.

Throughout the 1980s, Battle performed in recitals, choral works, and operas. Her work took her to performance venues around the world. In 1980, she made her Zürich Opera debut as Adina in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore. In 1982, she performed in Salzburg's Così fan tutte and later in one of the Festival's Mozart Matinee concerts. In 1985, she sang as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Coronation Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. That same year, she made her Royal Opera debut as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. In 1987, Karajan invited Battle to sing Johann Strauss' Voices of Spring at the Vienna New Year's Day concert. In opera, she performed roles like Oscar at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Semele at Carnegie Hall. She returned to Salzburg to sing roles like Susanna, Zerlina, and Despina, which she also performed at other opera houses. Battle became a well-known artist at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1980s, singing in more than 150 performances across 13 operas, including the Met's first production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. She also performed at opera houses such as San Francisco Opera, English National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Vienna State Opera, and Deutsche Oper Berlin.

During this time, she won three Grammy Awards for her recordings: Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart (1986), Salzburg Recital (1987), and Ariadne auf Naxos (1987). Her 1986 collaboration with guitarist Christopher Parkening, Pleasures of Their Company, was nominated for a Classical Album of the Year Grammy Award. She also received the Laurence Olivier Award (1985) for her performance as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Opera House in London. Critics consistently praised her performances. In 1985, Time Magazine called her "the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world."

In the 1990s, Battle performed in a wide range of projects, including concerts and recordings of spirituals, baroque music, complete operas, recitals, and collaborations with jazz musicians. In 1990, she performed a program of spirituals with Jessye Norman at Carnegie Hall, conducted by James Levine. That same year, she returned to Covent Garden to sing Norina in Don Pasquale and performed solo recitals in California and at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Battle's Carnegie Hall solo recital debut was on April 27, 1991, as part of the hall's Centennial Festival. She sang arias and songs by composers like Handel, Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Gershwin, and Richard Strauss, as well as traditional spirituals. Marian Anderson, who had performed at Carnegie Hall in 1965, was in the audience that night. Battle dedicated Rachmaninoff's "In the Silence of the Secret Night" to her. The recording of the recital earned Battle her fourth Grammy Award. In January 1992, she premiered André Previn's song cycle Honey and Rue, with lyrics by Toni Morrison. The piece was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and written specifically for Battle.

In December 1993, Battle performed at Carnegie Hall with pianists Martin Katz and Kenny Barron, drummer Grady Tate, saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., and bassist David Williams. The

Major debuts

• Professional debut: soprano soloist in Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto, Italy, July 9, 1972.
• Broadway debut: performed the role of Treemonisha in Scott Joplin's Treemonisha (Gunther Schuller, conductor), in Wednesday and Saturday matinee performances at Uris Theatre, New York City, October 1975.
• Operatic debut: played the role of Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Michigan Opera Theatre, 1975.
• New York City Opera company debut: performed as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, 1976.
• San Francisco Opera company debut: portrayed Oscar in Un ballo in maschera (Kurt Herbert Adler, conductor), November 12, 1977.
• Metropolitan Opera company debut: performed as Shepherd in Tannhäuser (James Levine, conductor), December 22, 1977.
• UK debut and Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut: performed as Nerina in La fedeltà premiata, July 15, 1979.
• Lyric Opera of Chicago company debut: portrayed Oscar in Un ballo in maschera (John Pritchard, conductor), November 26, 1980.
• Salzburg Festival debut and Salzburg opera debut: performed as Despina in Così fan tutte (Riccardo Muti, conductor), July 28, 1982.
• Salzburg Festival solo recital debut: August 25, 1984.
• Royal Opera, London company debut: performed as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, June 17, 1985.
• Carnegie Hall solo recital debut: April 27, 1991.

Repertoire

Battle has performed as a soloist in important choral, symphonic, and oratorio works. She has performed in these roles on stage. Her concert and recital performances include many different types of music, such as classical, jazz, and crossover pieces. Her jazz and crossover performances feature works by composers like Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, André Previn, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Stevie Wonder. She is known for performing African-American spirituals.

Major collaborations

Battle has worked with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, and James Levine, a fellow Ohioan who is the music director of New York's Metropolitan Opera. She has performed with many orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Orchestre de Paris. She has also performed at festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Ravinia Festival, Tanglewood Festival, Blossom Festival, the Hollywood Bowl, Mann Music Centre Festival, and the Caramoor Festival, as well as at the Cincinnati May Festival.

In recital, she has been accompanied on the piano by accompanists such as Margo Garrett, Martin Katz, Warren Jones, James Levine, Joel Martin, Ken Noda, Sandra Rivers, Howard Watkins, Dennis Helmrich, JJ Penna, and Ted Taylor. She has also collaborated with classical artists, including flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal, soprano Jessye Norman, mezzo-sopranos Frederica von Stade and Florence Quivar, violinist Itzhak Perlman, baritone Thomas Hampson, tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and guitarist Christopher Parkening.

Outside of classical music, she has worked with vocalists such as Al Jarreau, Bobby McFerrin, Alicia Keys, and James Ingram, jazz saxophonist Grover Washington Jr., and jazz pianists Cyrus Chestnut and Herbie Hancock. Battle also sang on the song "This Time" from Janet Jackson's album Janet and performed the title song, "Lovers," for the 2004 Chinese action movie House of Flying Daggers. She also performs music by Stevie Wonder.

Awards and honors

In 1986, Kathleen Battle received a Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance for her album Kathleen Battle Sings Mozart. In 1987, she won a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance for her recording Salzburg Recital. She also received a Grammy for Best Opera Recording for Richard Strauss: Ariadne Auf Naxos in 1987. In 1985, she earned a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a New Opera Production for her role as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Royal Opera in London. In 1992, she received a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Soloist Performance for her concert Kathleen Battle at Carnegie Hall (featuring works by Handel, Mozart, Liszt, and Strauss). She also won an Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Classical Music/Dance Programming for her performance at the Metropolitan Opera Silver Anniversary Gala in 1992. In 1992, she received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. In 1993, she earned a Grammy for Best Opera Recording for Handel: Semele and a Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement. She has received six honorary doctorates from American universities, including degrees from the University of Cincinnati, Westminster Choir College, Ohio University, Xavier University, Amherst College, and Seton Hall University. In 1999, she was honored with the NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award.