Jessye Norman is one of the most celebrated contemporary opera singers and recitalists in the world and a 2007 Aspen Institute Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence. A distinguished American soprano, she pursued formal musical studies at Howard University, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Michigan. She made her operatic debut in Berlin and soon conquered stages from Lincoln Center to Covent Garden and from Carnegie Hall to La Scala. Over the years she has won at least a dozen major singing competitions and has made many dozen more recordings. She is a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Equally at home singing arias, spirituals, or lieder, this year she is performing a wide-ranging repertoire in France, Spain, Germany and the United States.