Cathy Berberian - Biography

Biography

Cathy Berberian was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts to Armenian parents, Yervant and Louise Berberian. The elder of two children, she spent the first 12 years of her life in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The family moved to New York City in 1937 where she graduated from Manhattan's Julia Richman High School for Girls. From an early age, she showed an interest in Armenian folk music and dance as well as traditional opera. While still in high school, she was the director and soloist of the Armenian Folk Group in New York City. For a time, she was an undergraduate at New York University, but left to take evening classes in theatre and music at Columbia University, working during the day to support her studies. She went on to study music in Paris with Marya Freund in 1948, and in 1949 she went to Milan to study singing at the Milan Conservatory with Giorgina del Vigo. In 1950, she received a Fulbright scholarship to continue her studies there. Although she had appeared in several student productions, radio broadcasts and informal concerts during the early 1950s, she made her formal debut in 1957 at Incontri Musicali, a contemporary music festival in Naples. The following year her performance of John Cage's Aria with Fontana Mix in its world premiere, established her as a major exponent of contemporary vocal music. Her American debut came in 1960 at the Tanglewood Music Festival where she premiered Circles by the Italian composer Luciano Berio.

From 1950 to 1964 Berberian was married to Luciano Berio, whom she met when they were students at the Milan Conservatory. They had one daughter, Cristina Luisa, born in 1953. Berberian became Berio's muse both during and after their marriage. He deconstructed her voice in Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958) and wrote his Circles (1960), Folk Songs (1964), Sequenza III for woman's voice (1965), and Recital I (for Cathy) (1972) for her.

Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze, William Walton, Igor Stravinsky, and Anthony Burgess also composed works for her voice. Although Berberian always remained based in Milan from the time of her studies there, she taught at both Vancouver University and the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne during the 1970s. Following her death Berio composed Requies: in memoriam Cathy Berberian which premiered in Lausanne on 26 March 1984.

She is mentioned in the Steely Dan song "Your Gold Teeth" from the 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy :

"Even Cathy Berberian knows / There's one roulade she can't sing."

Berberian was also a translator. With Umberto Eco she translated into Italian works by Jules Feiffer and Woody Allen. Eco and Berberian worked together in other projects too and he nicknamed her magnificathy. This nickname with a different spelling chosen by Berberian herself: magnifiCathy was later used as the title of one of her most well known albums.