Glenn Korff School of Music to host Barbara Hendricks

Barbara Hendricks
Barbara Hendricks

Glenn Korff School of Music to host Barbara Hendricks

calendar icon05 May 2015    

Lincoln, Neb.--The Glenn Korff School of Music will host UNL Alumna Barbara Hendricks on May 7-8. Hendricks will be giving the undergraduate commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of fine arts degree on May 9 at 9:30 a.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

On Thursday, May 7 from 3-4:30 p.m., Hendricks will present a masterclass to UNL voice students in the Glenn Korff School of Music in Rm. 119 of Westbrook Music Building with a light reception to follow. The masterclass is free and open to the public.

On Friday, May 8, from 3-4:30 p.m., Hendricks will provide a public interview and Q&A about her career as an international opera celebrity, jazz performer, film star and United Nations humanitarian.

Born in Arkansas, Hendricks received a bachelor of science degree from UNL at age 20. She later studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

In 1974, she made her operatic debut at the San Francisco Opera and the Glyndebourne Festival as well as her recital debut in New York City's Town Hall. Hendricks has sung at the Paris Opera, the MET in New York, Covent Garden in London and La Scala in Milano. She is one of the most active recitalists of her generation. In addition to her vast repertoire of German Lieder (art songs), she is a leading interpreter and promoter of French, American and Scandinavian music.

Hendricks made her jazz debut at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1994 and has since performed regularly in jazz festivals throughout the world. She starred as Mimi in the 1988 film "La Boheme" and played The Angel in Peter Eotvos' opera "Angels in America" in 2004 in Paris.

After nearly 20 years of untiring service to the cause of refugees in collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency, she has been named the only Honorary Ambassador for Life by the UNHCR and is given special tasks that demand her long unparalleled experience and commitment. At the end of 1991 and 1993, she gave two solidarity concerts in war-ridden former Yugoslavia (Dubrovnik and Sarajevo). In 1998 she founded the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation to personalize her struggle for the prevention of conflicts in the world and to facilitate reconciliation and enduring peace where conflicts have already occurred.