Blake Stern was an American tenor, best known as an oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

 singer, and a professor emeritus of music at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 where he taught voice.

He was born in Logan, Iowa

Logan, Iowa

Logan is a city in Harrison County, Iowa, United States, along the Boyer River. The population was 1,545 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Harrison County. Henry Reel founded Logan in 1867, naming it in honor of General John A. Logan, a favorite army officer.-Geography:Logan's longitude...

. A graduate of Grinnell College

Grinnell College

Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....

 in 1940, he was an intelligence officer in the US Navy during World War II. After the war, he enrolled at Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

in New York City before becoming an esteemed teacher at the Yale faculty for 32 years. One of his notable pupils was tenor John Stewart

John Stewart (tenor)

John Harger Stewart is an American tenor, conductor, and voice teacher who had an active international singing career in concerts and operas from 1964 to 1990. He began his career singing regularly with the Santa Fe Opera from the mid 1960s through the early 1970s; after which he appeared only...

. During his career he performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

and toured the world.