Music
John Macurdy
1929–2020 · operatic bass
Detroit-born bass who sang at the Metropolitan Opera 1,001 times between 1962 and 2000 after starting out as a General Motors die and pattern maker.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Stamford, Connecticut
aged 91- Birth name
- John Edward McCurdy
- Detroit years
- 1929–1957
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Macurdy was born in Detroit in 1929 and sang as a boy soprano in the choir of Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, whose director sent him at sixteen to the Detroit voice teacher Avery Crew, his mentor for years. He attended Keating Elementary, Hutchinson Intermediate and Cass Technical High School, studied engineering at Wayne State University from 1947 to 1949 and then apprenticed as a wood pattern and die model maker in General Motors' styling section. After Air Force service in the Korean War he returned to Detroit as a journeyman model maker at Creative Industries, while attending opera workshops in summer. He left for New York in 1957, sang at New York City Opera from 1959 and joined the Metropolitan Opera in 1962. Over 38 seasons he gave 1,001 performances there, from Sarastro to the Commendatore, and recorded Don Giovanni with Karl Böhm and Lorin Maazel.
Highlights
- 1,001 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, 1962–2000
- Cass Technical High School graduate; studied engineering at Wayne State
- Worked as a General Motors die and pattern maker before singing full time
- Created Mr Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights (Santa Fe, 1958)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1930s–1941
Grosse Pointe Memorial Church
Macurdy sang soprano in this church's choir as a boy; its director Marie Curtis urged him to take voice lessons.
Studied here · 1940s
Cass Technical High School (1922 building)
Demolished · 1922–2011
Macurdy graduated from Cass Tech; the 1922 building he attended was demolished in 2011.
Studied here · 1947–1949
Wayne State University
He studied at the Wayne State University College of Engineering before his GM apprenticeship.