Price, Leontyne (Personal Name)

Barber, S. Hermit songs [SR] 1955: label (Leontyne Price, soprano)

New Grove dict. of opera (Price, (Mary Violet) Leontyne; b. Feb. 10, 1927, Laurel, MS; American soprano)

African American National Biography, accessed March 9, 2015, via Oxford African American Studies Center database: (Price, Leontyne; Mary Violet Leontine Price; opera singer; born 10 February 1927 in Laurel, Mississippi, United States; BA in voice from Wilberforce College, Ohio (1948); studied at Juilliard School of Music, New York City (1948-1952); casted in the revival of all-black American classic, Four Saints in Three Acts, staged in New York and Paris (1952); became the first black prima donna to appear in a major production of opera on television, Puccini s Tosca on NBC (1955); performed at San Francisco Opera (1957), Vienna State Opera (1958), La Scala (1960), and Metropolitan Opera (1961-1985); awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964), NAACP s Spingarn Medal (1965), and at least eighteen Grammy Awards; made history performing in the first nationally televised concert series from the White House (1978))

Individual was a Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee, a Spingarn Medal awardee and a Grammy awardee.