by JENI DAHMUS September 2001

Leontyne Price instructs Kimberly Justus during a master class, September 30, 1987. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

Leontyne Price gave a master class at Juilliard, her alma mater, on September 30, 1987. Student participants included soprano Carolyn James, mezzo-soprano Peiwen Chao, tenor Barrington Coleman, and soprano Kimberly Justus. The session was Ms. Price’s second experience presenting a master class; the first occurred at the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Training Program in the summer of 1986. After her retirement from the Metropolitan Opera in January 1985, she focused on giving recitals and instructing young singers.

Leontyne Price receiving an an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Joseph Polisi, the president of Juilliard, on May 22, 1987. She is hooded by Bruce MacCombie, then the dean, and James Sloan Allen, then the director of Liberal Arts and Academic Administration. (Photo by Peter Schaaf)

Ms. Price was enrolled in Juilliard’s Special Studies program from the 1948-49 academic year through 1951-52 academic year. A scholarship student, she studied voice with Florence Page Kimball. Ms. Price sang the role of Alice Ford in the Juilliard Opera Theatre’s production of Verdi’s Falstaff (February 1952) and appeared as one of five jugglers in the United States premiere of Darius Milhaud’s The Play of Robin and Marion (March 1952). Juilliard awarded Ms. Price an honorary doctorate in 1987, the first year the degree was instituted (other honorary degree recipients that year were Martha Hill, John Houseman, Itzhak Perlman, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III, and William Schuman).

Jeni Dahmus is Juilliard’s archivist.