Veronica Tyler

Veronica Tyler (March 4, 1937 – March 21, 2020) was an American soprano.

Veronica Tyler was born in Baltimore, Maryland. She attended Frederick Douglass High School. One of the first African-Americans to attend the prestigious Peabody Institute after it opened to blacks in 1949, she and classmate Junetta Jones were still barred from the school cafeteria. She studied under Alice Duschak and graduated in 1960. She went on to study under Florence Page Kimball at the Juilliard School. That same year she appeared in the first of three appearances on Leonard Bernstein's television show Young People's Concerts, singing "Hello, Hello" from Menotti's The Telephone and "Mimi's Farewell" from La Boheme. The next summer she appeared on the television talk show Tonight Starring Jack Parr. In 1966, she won the silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in the Soviet Union. In her final appearance on Young People's Concerts in 1967, she sang "Mi chiamano Mimi" from Puccini La Boheme and "My Man's Gone Now" from Porgy and Bess. On the program, Bernstein noted that the two songs required two very different vocal styles and praised Tyler's ability to perform both.

Discography

The Passion of Christ in Spirituals (1980)