Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 22, 2024

Kathleen Ferrier (22 April 1912 – 8 October 1953) was an English contralto who achieved an international reputation as a stage, concert and recording artist. During the Second World War she performed regularly with the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts. In 1946 she made her stage debut as Lucretia in the world premiere of Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, and a year later she appeared as Orfeo in Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. As a recitalist, Ferrier's repertoire included works by Bach, Brahms, Mahler and Elgar. Forming working relationships with the conductors John Barbirolli and Bruno Walter and the accompanist Gerald Moore, she became known internationally through her three tours of the United States and her many visits to continental Europe. She continued to perform and record after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1951. Among her many memorials, the Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship Fund makes annual awards to aspiring young singers.