Some of my favorite moments at each year’s Classical Singer Convention are the presentations of CS’ Annual Awards. This year, rather than presenting all three awards at the closing session as in years past, we decided to spread the wealth and present one award at each day’s major event.
On Thursday evening at the opening session, I presented the Stage Director of the Year Award to Mark Lamanna (see next month’s issue). On Friday evening at the Finals Concert of the AudComps, before hearing from the nine Professional Division finalists, I presented the Coach of the Year Award to Steven Crawford (see last month’s issue). Both men bowled over convention attendees with their inspirational acceptance speeches, and for days after I had attendees stop me in the halls of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel to mention how much they had enjoyed meeting and hearing from them.
On the last morning of the convention, at the closing brunch, I presented the Teacher of the Year Award. Before presenting the award, I told the story of this teacher’s remarkable life. As a small child she had fled Poland with her parents at the end of World War II, leaving behind her grandparents, who perished in the concentration camps. She was not from a musical family, but she was drawn to music during her formative years in New York City, insisting on taking piano lessons and graduating from a liberal arts school.
A teacher first, she came to singing as a second career. Her dedication and persistence carried her to the most renowned opera houses at home and abroad. Even with international success, she never stopped teaching, spending more than 20 years at Carnegie Mellon University. The last 11 of those years she fought a courageous battle against cancer, still singing and teaching through it all.
As I presented this year’s teacher of the year award to Mimi Lerner, I welcomed her long-time friend and colleague Robert Angres to the stand to accept on her behalf. Mimi couldn’t be there—she lost her battle with cancer at the end of March. So many of us in attendance had never met Mimi, and yet hearing Angres speak of her life, she seemed present there with us. In a very real way we met her that day.
Mimi lived her life fully, using her talents on the stage and in the studio to bless others’ lives. What she accomplished in so many time-bound moments in the flesh are now timeless acts that continue to impact others. You can meet Mimi, too, through the memories shared in this issue by her husband, son, and former students.
I hope you enjoy this edition of Classical Singer, dedicated to the many great voice teachers, living and gone, who have moved and inspired us. May those of us who are teachers pass that inspiration on to those with whom we work, so that our teaching will be timeless, too.
