Frederica von Stade

American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She was the first permanent vocal member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, has two Grand Prix du Disc awards, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, Italy's Premio della Critica Discografica, and "Best of the Year" citations by Stereo Review, Opera News for Best Classical Vocal Soloist. In 1983 she was honored with an award given at the White House by former president Ronald Reagan in recognition of her significant contribution to the arts.

Stade and her brother are from a wealthy, socially prominent family. Flicka, as she is known to friends, was educated at a convent school. Irish-American on her mother’s side, her father came from an aristocratic Long Island family. She was raised by her mother, never having known her dad who was killed in World War II. They lived in Greece and Italy for most of her childhood, then in the middle of New Jersey hunt country. Frederica attended Mannes School of Music in Manhattan. An average student, while in her second year a teacher pushed her into the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. She won their prize with her impeccable French diction, exquisite musicianship and flawless, alluring elegance. After doing Summer Stock during her Mannes years she traveled to Paris and spent a year as a nanny.

Beginning at the top, she received a Met contract offered by Sir Rudolph Bing and had her debut in "Die Zauberflote" on 23 March 1970. She left the Met roster 1976 moving on to every major opera company in the U.S. and Europe, making more than 36 recordings during this period. Giorgio Strehler invited her to sing Cherubino in "Le Nozze di Figaro" at the reopening of the Paris Opera in 1980. In 1982 she returned to the Met and has since become an important star, winning the 1982 Grand Prix du Disque for "Chants d’Auvergne.