![\"Carol](\"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/copa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/76\/2017\/11\/Neblett-Color.jpg\")
<\/p>\nChapman University’s Office of the Provost shares our sad news:<\/p>\n
It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of our colleague and dear friend Carol\u00a0Neblett, Artist-in-Residence at the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music. She passed away at her\u00a0home in Los Angeles on Thursday, November 23, after a short illness.<\/p>\n
We were very fortunate at Chapman to have an artist of her caliber be on our faculty for the past\u00a013 years. In addition to teaching voice lessons, she held the title of Associate Director of Opera\u00a0Chapman. Her tireless dedication to her students and to the opera program at Chapman\u00a0resulted in many success stories, and her students regarded her with deep and lasting affection:\u00a0they called her Mama Diva, recognizing not only her influence on them as musicians, but also her\u00a0concern for them as individuals. In addition to her work at Chapman, she taught privately and\u00a0conducted masterclasses, titled The Complete Singer, throughout the United States.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Carol Neblett was born in Modesto, California. She began violin studies at the age of two with\u00a0her grandmother Leona Neblett, who played chamber music with Jascha Heifetz, and introduced\u00a0her to Heifetz. While playing violin for him, she became frustrated and nervous so began singing\u00a0instead. Mr. Heifetz proclaimed \u201csuch a beautiful voice, I think you\u00a0should be a singer and I will\u00a0call your father Norman (who was his piano technician) to get you to a good voice teacher.\u201d\u00a0Jascha Heifetz became her musical mentor for the next 24\u00a0years. She studied voice with William\u00a0Vennard, Esther Andreas and Lotte Lehmann.<\/p>\n
Her exceptional talent caused Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Martin Bernheimer of the Los\u00a0Angeles Times to write, \u201cTall, lithe and eminently sympathetic, she must be one of the most\u00a0attractive and formidable Aidas in history. Her vocal capability places her in rarefied company\u00a0among the world\u2019s greatest sopranos.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere never was a moment when she was not in vocal or dramatic command,\u201d wrote Harold\u00a0Schonberg of The New York Times. Critics and audiences alike acclaimed her as a singing star\u00a0equally at home in opera, recitals, orchestral concerts, radio, television, recordings, film, and in\u00a0academic settings.<\/p>\n
It is almost impossible to summarize Carol Neblett\u2019s accomplishments adequately: after her\u00a0Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 19, she embarked on a stellar career. Her first major opera\u00a0role, Musetta in La boh\u00e8me, was at the New York City Opera in 1969, and by 1976 Carol was\u00a0making her debut singing the title role in Tosca at the Lyric Opera of Chicago with Luciano\u00a0Pavarotti, a role she went on to sing more than 300 times. During her career, Ms. Neblett sang in\u00a0the major opera houses of the world and was a regular performer at the Met, singing with \u2013\u00a0besides Pavarotti — Placido Domingo, Herman Prey, and Sherril Milnes, among others, and\u00a0under the baton of such luminaries as James Levine, Carlo Maria Giulini, Zubin Mehta, Claudio\u00a0Abbado, and Erich Leinsdorf.<\/p>\n
In addition, she sang over a hundred oratorios and symphonic works (many of which are\u00a0recorded) covering the great composers from the 17th through the 20th centuries. In 2012, she\u00a0made her musical theater debut as Old Heidi in Stephen Sondheim\u2019s Follies at the Los Angeles\u00a0Music Center. Her last appearance at Chapman was as a guest in the Opera Scenes production\u00a0this past October, where her musicality and stage presence were an inspiration to the audience\u00a0and to all students.<\/p>\n
She is survived by her son Stefan Schermerhorn, her daughter Adrienne Akre Spear (Dan), sister\u00a0Gail Naegle (John), brother Bradley Neblett (Shelly), and four grandchildren, Ian and Dylan\u00a0Schermerhorn and Marianne and Owen Spear. She was preceded in death by her daughter\u00a0Marianne Akre, and her parents: nationally prominent piano technician Norman Neblett and\u00a0Annette Brown, who worked for years as Jascha Heifetz\u2019 personal assistant.\u00a0Her children Stefan and Adrienne said: \u201cShe was a world-renowned singer and brilliant teacher,\u00a0and the family and much of the music world knew that. She always said that while she was\u00a0proud of her career, her greatest achievement and joy in life was her children and\u00a0grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be no memorial service. At her request, a celebration of life will be held in 2018. In\u00a0lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Chapman University\u2019s Hall-Musco Conservatory\u00a0of Music, 1 University Drive, Orange, CA 92866; or to the Los Angeles Ballet, 11755 Exposition\u00a0Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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