Joanna Elizabeth Simon (October 20, 1936[1][a] – October 19, 2022) was an American mezzo-soprano and journalist. The daughter of publisher Richard L. Simon, Joanna was an elder sister of singer and songwriter Carly Simon, singer and musical theatre composer Lucy Simon, and photographer Peter Simon.
As a singer, Simon was known for possessing a distinctively "smoky-voiced mezzo-soprano".[1][7] She performed regularly in operas and concerts internationally from 1962 through 1986, and thereafter made only periodic performances into the late 1990s. In 1962, she won the regional division of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Marian Anderson Award, also making her opera debut that year at the New York City Opera as Mozart's Cherubino. She created the role of Pantasilea in the world premiere of Alberto Ginastera's Bomarzo in 1967 with the Washington Opera Society (now the Washington National Opera), which brought her international fame, and she recorded the part for CBS Records. In 1972, she performed the title role in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri's Black Widow at the Seattle Opera, and in 1975 she performed the role of Pelagia in the world premiere of Robert Starer's The Last Lover at the Caramoor Music Festival.
Simon was the first singer to record the role of Irene in Handel's Tamerlano; singing the part for the opera's first recording in 1970. She also made recordings with several orchestras during her career, including the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. In 1984, she was a singer in the recording of her sister Carly's song "Turn of the Tide" which was commissioned by the Democratic Party for use in political campaigning, and she also performed as a backup singer on albums made by both of her sisters. On television she was a featured performer on the very last episode of The Ed Sullivan Show on March 28, 1971. She also was a panelist on What's My Line? (1968) and made appearances on programs hosted by Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, and David Frost.
After mostly retiring from singing professionally in 1986, Simon worked as the arts correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour from 1986 to 1992. She won an Emmy Award for her work with the program. She later worked as a real estate broker in Manhattan with the Fox Residential Group. Married to the novelist Gerald Walker from 1976 until his death in 2004, she was the companion of Walter Cronkite from 2005 until his death in 2009.
Joanna Elizabeth Simon was born on October 20, 1936,[1] and grew up in the Riverdale, Bronx, section of New York City.[8] Her father, Richard L. Simon, was the founder of the Simon & Schuster publishing company.[9][10] She had two younger sisters, singer Carly Simon and singer-composer Lucy Simon,[11] and a brother, Peter Simon, a photographer.[12] In 1985, the three sisters talked about how they each found a different niche in singing, and for Joanna it was classical music.[13]
Joanna Simon was educated at Riverdale Country School during her youth.[14] As a young adult she studied at Sarah Lawrence College where she graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1962. There, she became interested in musical theatre, and began taking voice lessons with contralto Marion Freschl, the teacher of Shirley Verrett and Marian Anderson, who reoriented her career towards opera.[15]
In 1967 Simon performed in the world premiere of Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera's Bomarzo at the Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C.,[28] for the Washington Opera Society, creating the role of the courtesan Pantasilea.[29] Her performance was widely praised in the press worldwide, and the role brought her a degree of international fame.[30]Variety critic Larry Michie wrote in his review of the production, "Joanna Simon was enormously successful as the courtesan. She sang her seductive aria well, and has a body, very fetchingly displayed, that one can easily imagine a nobleman or anyone else paying for."[31] She later reprised the role of Pantasilea at Lincoln Center when the opera was staged by the New York City Opera in March 1968,[32] and at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1972.[33] She also recorded the part for CBS Records in 1968 with conductor Julius Rudel.[34] Also in 1968, Simon portrayed Countess Geschwitz in Alban Berg's Lulu with the American National Opera Company and conductor Sarah Caldwell,[35] made her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Piacere in Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo,[15] and starred in a concert of the music of Lerner and Loewe with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Roger Wagner at the Hollywood Bowl.[36] Other opera companies she performed leading roles with on the international stage included the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux.[15]
In 1975 Simon portrayed the heroine Pelagia in the world premiere of Robert Starer's The Last Lover at the Caramoor Music Festival.[54] That same year she used the Hunter College playhouse for a recital, which was her first in New York after debuting with the New York City Opera (NYCO) 13 years prior.[55] The month before her recital she broke her hip after tripping on a rug, and had to perform while using crutches to get around.[11] In 1978 she returned to the NYCO to portray Adah in Victor Herbert's Naughty Marietta at Lincoln Center.[56] She continued to appear periodically with the NYCO over the next several years, appearing as Giuletta in The Tales of Hoffmann (1980)[57] and Fenena in Verdi's Nabucco (1981) among other roles.[58][59]
From 1986 until 1992 Simon was the arts correspondent with the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.[75] In 1990 she had an extended interview with tenor José Carreras about his battle with leukemia.[75] She won an Emmy Award in 1991 for her work on that program creating a documentary about manic depression and creativity.[75] Some of the other people she interviewed for the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour including neurologist Oliver Sacks[76] and playwright Marsha Norman.[77] The latter interview proved to be fortuitous for her sister Lucy, as Norman indicated that she was looking for a composer to create a musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 children's novel The Secret Garden.[77] After the interview, Joanna connected Norman with her sister Lucy who went on to write the music for Norman's stage version of the novel.[77] The result of that collaboration was the 1991 Tony Award-winning musical The Secret Garden.[77]
In 1975, Simon joined several prominent artists in signing a protest against UNESCO's anti-Israel resolutions and participated in protests organized by Leonard Bernstein.[78] On December 4, 1976, Joanna Simon married Gerald Walker, an articles editor for The New York Times Magazine and author of the book Cruising.[14] They remained married until Walker's death in 2004.[79] Simon met Walter Cronkite when she sold him an apartment,[80] and they dated from 2005 to 2009,[81][82] which was soon after the death of Cronkite's wife Betsy.[83] While she did not receive anything from Cronkite's estate,[84] which Cronkite did out of respect for his late wife,[85] in 2010 she served as the real estate agent for the sale of his apartments.[86]
In 1996, Simon took the New York State exam to be a real estate broker.[75] As late as 2012 she was the vice president of the Fox Residential Group (FRG).[87] As of 2014, she was an associate broker with the FRG.[88]
Simon died from thyroid cancer in Manhattan on October 19, 2022, one day before her 86th birthday[89][6] and the death of her younger sister Lucy from breast cancer.[90][91]
^While biographical entries on Joanna Simon in AllMusic and Chronology of Western Classical Music, Volume 2 report her date of birth as October 20, 1940,[2][3] other sources have reported ages which do not match this date. A 1963 concert review of Lucy SimoninThe News & Observer reported that her sister Joanna was 26 years old at that time without naming a specific day, month, or year of birth, making her potential year of birth 1936 or 1937.[4] However, a 2016 article in Vanity Fair contradicts both of these dates, saying Joanna Simon was 11 years old in 1950 (again no day, month, or year of birth given), making her potential birth years either 1938 or 1939.[5] At the time of her death in 2022 Deadline reported she was 85 years old[6] and The New York Times stated she was born on October 20, 1936.[1]
^Hall, Charles J. (2002). "Joanna Simon ( American mezzo-soprano )". Chronology of Western Classical Music, Volume 2. Routledge. p. 844. ISBN978-0-415-94217-1.
^"Rutgers Plays Host to TV's 'Hootenanny' Show Tonight". The News & Observer. May 4, 1963. p. 15. Lucy, currently in the graduating class at Cornell University's New York Hospital School of Nursing, composed the music and did the arrangement for the rendition. Carly, a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence College, and her sister became professional folk singers only last winter. But they are veterans of a hootenanny-at-home with a musical family which includes their sister, Joanna, 26, a professional singer, and a younger brother Peter, 16.
^ abcdeLivingston, William (1971). "Joanna Simon". Stereo Review. 27: 69.
^Rich, Maria F. (1976). "Simon, Joanna". Who's who in Opera: An International Biographical Directory of Singers, Conductors, Directors, Designers, and Administrators, Also Including Profiles of 101 Opera Companies, Volume 1. Arno Press. p. 502. ISBN978-0-405-06652-8.
^Mansouri, Lotfi; Arthur, Donald (2010). Lotfi Mansouri: An Operatic Journey. University Press of New England. p. 69. ISBN978-1-55553-706-7.
^Witchel, Lawrence (November 16, 1962). "Back Stage Capsule Reviews: "The Marriage of Figaro"". Back Stage. Vol. 3, no. 41. p. 12.
^"Music: Schlitz Lifts Tab For Philharmonic Recitals In 5 Borough Parks". Variety. 239 (11): 57. August 4, 1965.
^"Legitimate: Concert Review; New York Philharmonic". Variety. Vol. 239, no. 13. August 18, 1965. p. 56.
^"Classical Music: Command Bows Steinberg Pkg". Billboard. Vol. 78, no. 38. September 17, 1966. p. 49.
^"Classical Music: Six European Groups in Int'l Fest". Billboard. Vol. 79, no. 24. June 17, 1967. p. 30.
^Klein, Howard (February 16, 1966). "Ormandy Offers Minor Beethoven: Philadelphians Are Joined by Chorus and Soloists". The New York Times. p. L52.
^Arlen, Walter (December 18, 1966). "Classical Records: Reminder of Bernstein's Talents". Los Angeles Times. p. B32.
^"Berkshire Festival, Tanglewood (1966)". Concert Bulletin of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Eighty-Sixth Season, 1966–1967. Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc. 1967. p. 1560.
^Mesa, Franklin (2015). "Simon, Joanna". Opera: An Encyclopedia of World Premieres and Significant Performances, Singers, Composers, Librettists, Arias and Conductors, 1597–2000. McFarland & Company. p. 428. ISBN978-1-4766-0537-1.
^Michie, Larry (May 24, 1967). "Legitimate: D.C. Society Out for Argentine". Variety. 247 (1): 61.
^Landry, Robert J. (March 20, 1968). "Legitimate: 'Bomarzo' Not So Good on Melody; Major Production But Minor Score". Variety. Vol. 250, no. 5. p. 70.
^Steiger, Karsten (2011). Opern-Diskographie: Verzeichnis aller Audio- und Video-Gesamtaufnahmen. Walter de Gruyter. p. 159.
^"Classical Music: CBS Issues 1st 'Bomarzo'". Billboard. Vol. 80, no. 10. March 9, 1968. p. 41.
^Silberman, Margery (September 20, 1967). "Legitimate: Sarah Caldwell's New National Opera In Strong Road Start at Indianapolis". Variety. Vol. 248, no. 5. p. 64.
^Arlen, Walter (August 25, 1968). "Previn to Conduct Bowl Concerts". Los Angeles Times. p. c33.
^"Classical Music: 'A Waltz Dream' Will Open Little Orchestra's Season". Billboard. Vol. 80, no. 21. May 25, 1968. p. 42.
^Kirby, Fred (March 8, 1969). "Talent: 'Archy and Mehitabel' Pop Opera Is Still a Good One". Billboard. Vol. 81, no. 10. p. 14.
^"Other Events; Little Orchestra Society". New York. February 24, 1969.
^"Giulini Leads Symphony in Mozart's 'Requiem' With Young Soloists". Chicago Daily Defender. March 2, 1969. p. 12.
^"Ormandy to Open Ravinia Festival – Andre Watts Slated". Chicago Daily Defender. November 10, 1969. p. 11.
^"Sleeve 21: Tom Paul with mezzo-soprano Joanna Simon following a performance in the Carmel Beach Festival, Carmel, California". Tom Paul Collection, Ruth T. Watanabe Special Collections, Sibley Music Library. Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.
^Kriegsman, Alan M. (August 27, 1969). "Season Launched to The Planets". The Washington Post. p. B13.
^Green, Abel (March 29, 1972). "Miscellany: Richard Rodgers' 50th Show Biz Anni & 70th Birthday – An Enchanted Evening". Variety. Vol. 266, no. 7. pp. 2, 88.
^"A Pictorial View of Grammy Highlights". Billboard. Vol. 83, no. 13. March 27, 1971. p. 15.
^LoBrutto, Vincent (2018). TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas. ABC-CLIO. pp. 44–45. ISBN978-1-4408-2973-4.
^Centre international de la musique, International Music Centre (1975). Music in Film and Television: An International Selective Catalogue, 1964-1974: Opera, Concert, Documentation. Bernan Associates. p. 17. ISBN978-92-3-201273-9.
^"Dr. Joyce Brothers "Living Easy". Variety. Vol. 268, no. 9. October 11, 1972. p. 49.
^Gerard, Jeremy (September 29, 1988). "TV Notes: Playing TV musical chairs with baseball and the debates Olympic ratings rise but are lower than expected Classical music awards on A&E". The New York Times. p. C26.