27 Facts About Lili Chookasian

Lili Chookasian was an American contralto of Armenian ethnicity, who appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses.

Lili Chookasian began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties.

Lili Chookasian arose as one of the world's leading contraltos during the 1960s and 1970s, and notably had a long and celebrated career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1962 through 1986.

Lili Chookasian was admired for her sonorous, focused tone as well as her excellent musicianship.

Lili Chookasian often chose, against tradition, to sing oratorios from memory.

Lili Chookasian's family had immigrated to the United States shortly after the Armenian genocide of 1915 which claimed the lives of two of Chookasian's grandparents and several members of her extended family.

Lili Chookasian only became proficient speaking English through attending school as a child.

Lili Chookasian began performing professionally as an oratorio and concert singer in the 1940s, mostly in Chicago but occasionally out of town.

In 1956 Lili Chookasian was diagnosed with breast cancer and her physicians gave her six months to live.

Lili Chookasian underwent a radical mastectomy, which was further complicated by a widespread infection that required three additional surgeries.

Lili Chookasian's debut performance was a resounding success and a recording of that performance was given to conductor Thomas Schippers by McGuire at the Festival of Two Worlds the following summer.

Lili Chookasian had spent the last year studying under Ponselle and had created her second opera role on stage with the company, Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore in 1960.

Schippers contacted Lili Chookasian to come up for an audition, and after hearing her, she was immediately engaged to sing the music of Amelfa Timoferevna for her New York Philharmonic debut in early 1961.

Shortly after her NYP debut, Lili Chookasian was offered a contract with the Metropolitan Opera by Rudolf Bing but turned it down because she was afraid it would take too much time away from her family.

Lili Chookasian made her European opera debut at the festival under Schippers as Herodias in Salome.

Lili Chookasian sang Herodias again just a month later at the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi and gave a lauded performance of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, accompanied by Charles Wadsworth at the Teatro Caio Melisso that summer.

Lili Chookasian told no one, fulfilled her commitments in New York, Baltimore, and Europe, and then finally sought a doctor's care in November 1961 after finishing up performance of Aida.

Lili Chookasian went through another mastectomy, after which her prognosis was good; the cancer had not spread, and she recovered quickly.

Lili Chookasian notably sang the role of Maharanee in the United States premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Last Savage in a cast that included George London, Nicolai Gedda, Roberta Peters and Teresa Stratas.

Lili Chookasian quickly became one of the leading contraltos performing on the international stage during the 1960s and 1970s, singing under Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Fritz Reiner, Karl Bohm, Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, and many other great conductors, with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Vienna Philharmonic among others.

Lili Chookasian was particularly admired worldwide for her performances in Beethoven's Symphony No 9, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder and above all Verdi's Requiem.

Lili Chookasian made her first appearance at the Bayreuth festival in 1965 singing in three of her Wagner roles: Mary, the First Norn, and Erda.

Lili Chookasian appeared with the Zurich Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the New Orleans Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, and other companies in the United States and Europe.

Lili Chookasian fondly recounted one of her most memorable trips to Yerevan, Armenia in a 1997 Opera News interview.

Lili Chookasian was invited to the city to perform in two productions mounted in her honor: Amneris in Aida and the Armenian composer Tigran Chukhajian's opera Arshak II.

Lili Chookasian taught at Yale and resided in Branford, Connecticut.

Lili Chookasian died at her home in Branford at the age of 90 in 2012.