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2023-10-14 11:51:08

The United States is known as the land of opportunity for a very good reason. Countless people, born in other countries, have come to the U.S. and became well known because of their work, talent, and/or skills. What is much rarer are people who were born in this country and then took up residency in another country where they became famous. One of the people who did this was a young lady from North Dakota who relocated to Europe and became a celebrated soloist and soprano opera singer.

Judith Ann (Reed) Beckmann, who was originally from Jamestown, began her opera career in Los Angeles. She was a protégé of the famous opera soprano Lotte Lehmann, who was considered to be one of the greatest singing actresses of all time. Lehmann was born in Germany and was a featured soprano with the Vienna State Opera Company in Austria from 1916 to 1937.
While Nazi Germany was making preparations to take over Austria in 1937, Lehmann fled to the U.S. and became a celebrated soprano with the New York Metropolitan Opera Company.

Judith Ann Beckmann

Contributed /Manfred Krugmann (January 2013)

In the late 1950s, Judith began taking singing lessons from Lehmann and soon became one of her favorite students. Judith made her musical debut in Germany in 1962, and by the late 1960s, was a featured guest soprano with all the major opera companies in Germany and Austria. From 1969-89, she made 83 guest appearances with the Vienna State Opera and 381 performances in 27 roles with the Hamburg State Opera. In 1975, Judith and the famous tenor Placido Domingo, were simultaneously appointed as Hamburg’s Kammersangerins, a German honorific title for distinguished singers of opera and classical music.

From the late 1980s until her death in 2022, Judith was in great demand as a teacher/tutor of opera singers. In 1999, the University of Music and Theatre of Hamburg bestowed upon Professor Judith Beckmann the Medal of Honor. She became only the second recipient to receive this prestigious award.

Judith Ann Reed was born on May 10, 1935, in Jamestown, to Harold and Jane (Wells) Reed. Harold grew up in Jamestown, and Jane in Robinson, in Kidder County, and both were reared in talented musical families. Harold had a deep baritone voice that enthralled listeners at concerts and church services, and Jane was a talented pianist who gave piano lessons. In 1937, Harold and Jane and their three young children moved to La Verne, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Harold became a voice instructor at La Verne College, now the University of La Verne.

It has been written that “Harold Reed occupied a prominent position in musical and educational circles in Southern California. He was influential in advancing the status of opera products and appreciation in the area.” His major musical objectives were helping his students at La Verne make their voices sound more powerful, use vocal techniques to expand their range and expression, and become more confident in vocal performances. Harold’s other focus was instilling these abilities and attributes in his daughter Judith.

Throughout her years in public schools in Los Angeles, Judith was a soloist or lead singer in many school and church productions. Following graduation, she received numerous music scholarships and enrolled at the University of Southern California in Santa Barbara, where she continued to excel in vocal performances. While in college, Judith came to the attention of Lotte Lehmann, who taught classes there. Many of Lehmann’s students went on to world fame and others to highly successful careers. The most famous of her students were Marilyn Horne and Grace Bumbry. Both Horne and Bumbry sang at the White House and were recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors Award.

In 1958, Judith married conductor Irvin/Irving Beckmann, and the next year, she enrolled at the UCLA Opera workshop where she performed in the operas “Gallantry” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” Judith then received a scholarship to attend the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. This was an eight-week summer music festival, highlighted by concerts and workshops directed by famous composers, conductors, and artists. The Academy was founded by Lehmann.

In July of 1961, Judith won a singing competition in San Francisco and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Henny Wolff at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. Wolff was a veteran, celebrated soprano concert singer and voice teacher who concentrated on the music of Bach and Handel. In 1962, Judith made her European operatic debut with the role of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” at the National Theater of Braunschweig.

Word soon got around Germany of Judith’s excellent performance, and during the next few years, she appeared in significant roles in operas in the German cities of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Kassel, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Frankfurt and Mannheim. In 1966, Judith made her debut at the Hamburg State Opera, and in 1967, she became a member of that opera company, where she would become one of the most revered singers of her time.

The 1970s saw Judith Beckmann become an international celebrity. She made her debut with the State Opera of Vienna (Austria) in 1969 and made over 80 more appearances there in the next 16 years. During the 1970s, she also sang as a guest in Brussels, Belgium; Nancy, France; Geneva, Switzerland; Venice, Italy; London, England; and San Francisco. Over the next three decades, many record albums that featured Beckmann were released in Germany.

During the 1980s, Beckmann continued her European tours, and she also became active conducting music lectures at the Hamburg Academy of Music. In addition, she began giving private voice lessons to talented, aspiring singers. On April 22, 1989, Beckmann appeared in her last opera as the field marshal in “Der Rosenkavalier” at the Hamburg State Opera. She then was hired as a music instructor at the University of Music and Theatre of Hamburg where she, for the next three decades, taught countless students to become better singers.

Judith Ann Beckmann died Feb. 19, 2022, but her musical influence lives on through the large number of notable singers she trained. However, one of her most successful pupils in the music industry is not noted for her singing. Catherine Beckmann Rückwardt, Beckmann’s daughter, made history when, in 1997, she became the first female kapellmeister (orchestra conductor) at a major German opera house.

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