User:4meter4/sandbox12

Barbara Thorne, also known by her married name Barbara Thorne Stevenson, (December 26, 1909 - 23 Oct 1985, Washington County, Utah, USA) was an American soprano. She made her professional singing debut in 1930 as a soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra while an undergraduate music student at Pacific University. She continued to perform professionally while pursuing further vocal studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she was a pupil of Estelle Liebling.

Early life, education and early career in Oregon
Barbara Jane Thorne was born on December 26, 1909 in Portland, Oregon. She was the daughter of Norman Campbell Thorne and Clara Isabell Thorne (née Blakeney). Her father was the assistant superintendent of Portland Public Schools. As a teenager she studied singing in her native city with Edith Collais Evans (1884-1970), and as a part of Evans' studio gave a recital sponsored by the Sherman Clay music company on October 26, 1928 at the age of 18. Evans would later become both the head of the music department and the Dean of Women at the University of Alaska. Thorne attended Franklin High School in Portland where she starred in the title role of the school's November 1928 production of Franz Schubert's Rosamunde.

After graduating from high school in 1929, Thorne studied music at Pacific University (PU) in Forest Grove, Oregon. While a student at PU she won a vocal contest sponsored by the Portland Symphony Orchestra (PSO) which led to a contract to perform with the symphony. In April 1930 she was the soprano soloist in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the PSO; a work she later repeated with the orchestra in January 1935. She also appeared as a soloist with the PSO in George Frideric Handel's Messiah in December 1931.

In October 1930 Thorne won the Oregon state division of the Atwater Kent Foundation's national singing competition, and the following December 1930 she placed third in the Western division of that competition. She also won the Oregon state division in 1932. In 1933 she won first place in the Oregon Federation of Music Clubs singing competition.

In March 1932 she starred in a production of The Mikado with the Portland Opera Association. In April 1933 she sang the role of Gilda in Rigoletto with the KGW Opera Club for a radio broadcast of the opera on local Portland radio stations. She performed in several more radio broadcasts with the KGW Opera Club for radio broadcasts on KGW (radio) and KEX (AM) in Portland; including the role of Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata in December 1933, and the role of Micaëla in Carmen in July 1934. In January 1934 she was a soloist with the Lawrence Turn Verein Orchestra for concerts in Portland. In March 1934 she appeared in recital at Pythian Hall in a concert sponsored by the Portland Artist's Association. She performed new works by Oregon composers at the convention of the Oregon Federation of Music Clubs in July 1934.

In August 1935 she was a soloist with Eddy Duchin and his orchestra on a national NBC Radio broadcast.

Musical training and career in Philadelphia
Thorne pursued further studies at the Curtis Institute of Music where she was a pupil of Harriet van Emden in the 1935-1936 academic year. By the 1937-1938 academic year she was a voice student of Estelle Liebling at Curtis. She graduated from Curtis on May 17, 1938.

While a student at Curtis she sang the part of the Widow in Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah given in performances on multiple Sunday afternoons at the Second Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in October 1936, and repeated that work at the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia the following December. She previously had worked as a soloist in other oratorios given at the Second Presbyterian Church under the music direction of Alexander McCurdy in the 1930s, including Johannes Brahms' A German Requiem, Gioachino Rossini's Stabat Mater, and Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion. While a Curtis student she returned to Portland to give a recital at Lincoln High School on September 15, 1936. On December 9, 1936 she gave a recital at the Sylvania Hotel in Philadelphia.

In the summer of 1939 she was a guest soloist with Duke University's choir.