Quotes by Jessye Norman

About Jessye Norman:

Jessye Mae Norman is an American Grammy award-winning opera singer and recitalist. A dramatic soprano, Norman is associated in particular with the Wagnerian repertoire, and with the roles of Sieglinde, Ariadne, Alceste, and Leonore. Norman has been inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and is a Spingarn Medalist. Apart from receiving several honorary doctorates and other awards, she has also received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Medal of Arts, and is a member of the British Royal Academy of Music.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

One of the reasons that I take such joy in being a trustee of the New York Public Library is the love of reading that I found as a child in the Saturday morning library events for preschoolers and first and second graders as I was growing up in Augus...

Jessye Norman

I love singing jazz. I don't like the idea that classical music should be over here and jazz should be someplace else. It's all wonderful, and we should be open to enjoying it all.

Jessye Norman

I am grateful that my horizons were not narrowed at the outset.

Jessye Norman

I have a particular affliction. I am unable to say a word I can't spell.

Jessye Norman

Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between what people need from you and what you need for yourself.

Jessye Norman

I walk an 11-minute mile without huffing and puffing.

Jessye Norman

I want to sing more in Spanish. I want to sing the songs of Granados; the songs of Montsalvatge. To do things that truly I've not done before.

Jessye Norman

A person has the right, and I think the responsibility, to develop all of their talents.

Jessye Norman

I am the proud and humble recipient of more than 30 honorary doctorate degrees.

Jessye Norman

It takes a caring community to raise a child that will be a whole person and a contributing citizen.

Jessye Norman

I'm a sloucher, sort of, when nobody's looking.

Jessye Norman

As for my voice, it cannot be categorised - and I like it that way, because I sing things that would be considered in the dramatic, mezzo or spinto range.

Jessye Norman

I am not one to equate dress size and artistic performance.

Jessye Norman

I try to frighten my very young colleagues into studying and understanding their voices before they attempt things that are beyond them. It's wise to take gymnastics and swimming to strengthen the body, because people don't realise what an athletic u...

Jessye Norman

I sing in Hungarian. I read Hungarian. I do not pretend to speak Hungarian, but I sing in languages that I have studied as languages. And I find that to be central and very, very helpful. I think if you're not really cognizant of what every single wo...

Jessye Norman

I sing in languages that I speak. So when I'm singing a Schubert song, I know precisely what every word means and, you know, when it was composed and who was the poet and all of that and whether Strauss or Wagner or French Belioz, Duparc or Debussy o...

Jessye Norman

We singers have a different level of responsibility from other musicians. We have words that we must convey; we have meanings that we must convey through these lyrics.

Jessye Norman

There is a lot of propaganda about opera singers not being able to act. That's not necessarily true and hasn't been true for a very long time. And certainly there were those instances when singers were told they need to fit into a certain size dress....

Jessye Norman

If you send up a weather vane or put your thumb up in the air every time you want to do something different, to find out what people are going to think about it, you're going to limit yourself. That's a very strange way to live.

Jessye Norman

There has never been a time when I was not committed to, involved in, or caring of, the social and political issues of my world.

Jessye Norman

I think that, certainly, most of my operatic roles are in German. I think it happened because, of course, I was lucky in that I was invited to sing, first of all, my operatic debut in Berlin at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, which was West Berlin at the t...

Jessye Norman

Author Bio

  • NameJessye Norman
  • DescriptionAmerican opera singer
  • AliasesJessye Mae Norman
  • BornSeptember 15, 1945
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionSinger; Opera Singer
  • AwardsCommandeur Des Arts Et Des Lettres?; Spingarn Medal; National Medal Of Arts; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; Wolf Prize In Arts