William Warfield

Today marks the centennial birthday of the late William Warfield, one of the world’s most renown bass-baritone singers. Warfield began his storied life in Arkansas where he was born in 1920, the oldest son of a Baptist minister in West Helena. The family moved to New York when his father was called to lead the Mt. Vernon Church in Rochester.

Warfield’s introduction to opera fans came on March 19, 1950 during his recital debut at New York’s Town Hall. Two years later, he performed in a European tour of Porgy and Bess which was sponsored by the U.S. State Department. Warfield played opposite Leontyne Price, and the two opera stars fell in love and soon married. Travel and the demands of their careers took a toll, and the couple divorced in 1972.

Warfield utilized his strong language skills during World War II when he served as the only African American member of the “Ritchie Boys,” the name given thousands of soldiers who were trained at Fort Ritchie, Maryland which was an intelligence center where hundreds of Jewish recruits who fled Nazi Germany for the United States were trained to interrogate their one-time countrymen. The Zekelman Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan explains that Warfield ended up in the camp because he perfected his German while studying music. Yet, because of the segregated times, he was unable to use them.

Warfield graduated from the Eastman School of Music where a scholarship has been established in his memory. Earlier this month the annual benefit concert for the William Warfield Scholarship Fund was held.  Warfield taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later became the Chairman of the Voice Department. Warfield died in Chicago in August 2002 after suffering a fall. He was 82.