Biography:

Maria Louise Ewing (March 27, 1950 – January 9, 2022) was an American opera singer. In the early part of her career she performed solely as a lyric mezzo-soprano; she later assumed full soprano parts as well. Her signature roles were Blanche, Carmen, Dorabella, Rosina and Salome. Some critics regarded her as one of the most compelling singing actresses of her generation.^[1]

Early life and education

Maria Louise Ewing was born in Detroit, Michigan, on March 27, 1950.^[2] She was the youngest of four daughters of Hermina Ewing, née Veraar, a Dutch-born homemaker, and Norman Isaac Ewing, an electrical engineer at a steel company.^[2][3] Her father claimed to be of Sioux descent,^[2][3] but he was the son of parents who were both part European, part African; an episode of the genealogical television show Finding Your Roots devoted to Ewing’s daughter, the actress Rebecca Hall, revealed that he was the son of John William Ewing, born into slavery, a prominent figure in the African-American community of Washington DC, and a descendant of Bazabeel Norman, a notable African-American veteran of the American Revolutionary War.^[4] (Rebecca Hall’s interest in her mother’s ethnicity inspired her to make a film, Passing, the protagonist of which is an African-American woman whose skin is light enough for her to be perceived as white.^[2]) According to Ewing’s former husband, her father’s African roots caused her family so much anxiety that a particularly dark-skinned relative of theirs was forbidden from visiting their home during the hours of daylight.^[5] Ewing herself was unembarrassed by her racial make-up, regarding her African roots not with shame but with pride.^[5]

Ewing’s parents were both musical enthusiasts: her mother was a keen collector of classical recordings, and her father played the piano well enough to attract an audience of admiring neighbors.^[6] Ewing’s own musical education began with piano lessons when she was thirteen.^[6] As well as playing solo piano pieces, she sometimes acted as an accompanist for one of her sisters, Frances, occasionally singing duets with her; their mother was sufficiently impressed by her voice to encourage her to complement her keyboard work by studying singing too.^[6] Coached by a local voice teacher, Ewing joined the alto section of the chorus at her Detroit high school—Jared W. Finney High School^[3]—and was soon participating in and winning singing competitions.^[6] When she was seventeen, she became a pupil of Marjorie Gordon, a coloratura soprano (not to be confused with an English Gilbert and Sullivan soprano of the same name).^[6] After only a year of teaching her, Gordon suggested that she should apply to take part in Oakland University‘s Meadow Brook Music Festival.^[6] She auditioned for the role of Maddalena in a production of Rigoletto that was to be conducted by a young James Levine.^[6] Their meeting proved to be wonderfully serendipitous: Levine was so struck by her expressive power that he assured her that she had the potential to become a major artist,^[6] while for her part, she found in him a teacher, mentor, guide, champion and friend.^[6] It was in order to study with Levine that she sought and won a scholarship at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her other instructors included the soprano Eleanor Steber.^[6] And after her graduation in 1970, it was at Levine’s urging that she continued her training in New York City as a private pupil of the great mezzo-soprano Jennie Tourel, supporting herself by working in offices and clothing stores.^[6]

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