Mac Morgan
Encyclopedia
Mac Morgan was an American bass-baritone
who had an active performance career in concerts and opera
s from the early 1940s until the mid 1970s. The Boston Globe
described him as a singer "known for his rich tone and enviable diction". After retiring from the stage, he embarked on a second successful career as a voice teacher
.
, Morgan moved with his family to Jacksonville, Florida
at the age of 9. His father was a lease-inspector for federal buildings. His family attended the Main Street Baptist church in Jacksonville, and it was there that he had his earliest singing
experiences, both as a choir member and soloist. While in middle school he began playing the trombone
, and at the age of 16 he began taking voice lessons. After finishing high school in Jackson, he entered the Eastman School of Music
in 1936 on the advice of noted baritone John Charles Thomas
. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music
degree from Eastman in 1940. His voice teacher at Eastman, Arthur Craft, arranged for him to practice with the accompianist Helen Neilly. Neilly and Morgan married in 1941, and remained married until Morgan's death 66 years later. The couple had three daughters together.
. He spent the next 3 1/2 years in military service during World War II
in the South Pacific and Australia. He spent the majority of his time in the army working in the latter country as a full time singer; performing in major cities throughout the continent.
After returning to the United States on 8 January 1946, Morgan resided with his family in Darien, Connecticut
. In 1946 he began performing regularly on the New York City radio station WQXR with the Paul Lavalle Orchestra. He then was offered his own weekly show by NBC Radio, Highways in Melody, with Lavalle serving as music director and his orchestra accompanying. He commuted into NYC for performances on the show every Friday night at 8 o'clock at the pay of $130 a week. He also toured with the program for performances in Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia among other American cities. In 1948 he performed selections from Jules Massenet
's Hérodiade
and Victor Herbert
's Eileen
with soprano Vivian Della Chiesa
and Lavalle conducting the New York Philharmonic
.
In the early 1950s Morgan and his family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts
, and there he befriended the artist Norman Rockwell
who did a charcoal drawing of Morgan which the singer used in publicity material. After moving to Massachusetts, he became a regular performer with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
. With the BSO he performed under conductor Leonard Bernstein
on several occasions, including 1955 performances of Ludwig van Beethoven
's Missa Solemnis
and Beethoven's Fidelio
(as Rocco). Other engagements with major symphony orchestras soon followed, including performances with conductors Charles Munch
, Erich Leinsdorf
, and Seiji Ozawa
. He was also frequently heard at the Tanglewood Music Festival
, making his debut there in 1950 as Don Anchise in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
's La finta giardiniera
with Ray Smolover
as Count Belfiore, Julian Patrick
as Roberto, Marni Nixon
as Serpetta, and Sarah Caldwell
conducting.
In 1951 Morgan sang two roles with the New York City Opera
: Pantalone in The Love for Three Oranges and Silvio in Pagliacci
. Also that year he sang the role of Leperello in Mozart's Don Giovanni
with Boris Goldovsky
's New England Opera Theater
. He was heard in succeeding years with that company as Figaro in The Barber of Seville
(1952–1954), Podesta (1953), the title role in Don Pasquale
(1955), and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte
(1956). He sang the role of Sharpless in Giacomo Puccini
's Madama Butterfly
with the Opera Guild of Greater Miami in 1953 with Licia Albanese
in the title role.
with the San Antonio Symphony
; reprising the role the following year in concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
and in a fully staged production that toured the United States. The touring cast notably included Phyllis Curtin
as Fiordiligi and David Lloyd
as Ferrando. In 1958 he performed Guglielmo on a television broadcast of the opera made by the NBC Opera Theatre
with John Alexander
as Ferrando and Frances Bible
as Dorabella. He had previously toured the United States with the NBC Opera Theatre in 1957–1958, singing Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
with Peter Herman Adler
conducting. He performed in another opera broadcast for NBC in 1961, the premiere of Leonard Kastle
's Deseret. In April 1958 he gave a highly successful New York City recital debut at Town Hall
with Paul Ulanowsky
serving as his accompianist. In 1959 he performed in the United States premiere of Offenbach's Le Voyage dans la Lune
with the Opera Company of Boston
. That same year he recorded Igor Stravinsky
's Threni
for Columbia Records
.
In 1962 Morgan sang Jochanaan in Richard Strauss
' Salome
with Thomas Schippers
conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
. In 1963 he sang a duet opposite Joan Sutherland
on The Bell Telephone Hour
. On 19 January 1964 he was the bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem
for the Solemn Requiem Mass honouring the death of President John F. Kennedy
in Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, celebrated by Richard Cardinal Cushing
, the Archbishop of Boston, who had before presided Kennedy's funeral. In the mid 1960s his performance career began to slack as he began to shift towards a second career as a voice teacher. One of his last performances was as Rocco in the Opera Company of Boston's 1976 production of Fidelio.
, where he was chairman of the voice department for 11 years. One of his notable students there was the soprano Lauren Flanigan
. In 1982 he retired from Boston University and moved to Georgia, where he taught for 11 more years at Emory University
. He lived in retirement in Carrollton, Georgia
where he died of complications of an appendectomy at the age of 89.
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
who had an active performance career in concerts and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s from the early 1940s until the mid 1970s. The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
described him as a singer "known for his rich tone and enviable diction". After retiring from the stage, he embarked on a second successful career as a voice teacher
Voice teacher
A voice teacher or singing teacher is a musical instructor who trains adults and children in the art of singing. This generally involves training in breath control and support, proper tone production, pitch control and musical intonation, proper formation of vowels and consonants as well as...
.
Early life and education
Born in Texarkana, TexasTexarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...
, Morgan moved with his family to Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
at the age of 9. His father was a lease-inspector for federal buildings. His family attended the Main Street Baptist church in Jacksonville, and it was there that he had his earliest singing
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
experiences, both as a choir member and soloist. While in middle school he began playing the trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, and at the age of 16 he began taking voice lessons. After finishing high school in Jackson, he entered the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
in 1936 on the advice of noted baritone John Charles Thomas
John Charles Thomas
John Charles Thomas was a popular American opera, operetta and concert baritone.-Birth, schooling and stage debut:...
. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
degree from Eastman in 1940. His voice teacher at Eastman, Arthur Craft, arranged for him to practice with the accompianist Helen Neilly. Neilly and Morgan married in 1941, and remained married until Morgan's death 66 years later. The couple had three daughters together.
Early singing career
After his marriage, Morgan moved with his wife to New York City where he was soon signed with a talent manager. While performing on his first concert tour in 1942, he was drafted into the United States ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. He spent the next 3 1/2 years in military service during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the South Pacific and Australia. He spent the majority of his time in the army working in the latter country as a full time singer; performing in major cities throughout the continent.
After returning to the United States on 8 January 1946, Morgan resided with his family in Darien, Connecticut
Darien, Connecticut
Darien is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. A relatively small community on Connecticut's "Gold Coast", the population was 20,732 at the 2010 census. Darien was listed at #9 at CNN Money's list of "top-earning towns" in the United States as of 2011...
. In 1946 he began performing regularly on the New York City radio station WQXR with the Paul Lavalle Orchestra. He then was offered his own weekly show by NBC Radio, Highways in Melody, with Lavalle serving as music director and his orchestra accompanying. He commuted into NYC for performances on the show every Friday night at 8 o'clock at the pay of $130 a week. He also toured with the program for performances in Cleveland, Indianapolis, and Philadelphia among other American cities. In 1948 he performed selections from Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Hérodiade
Hérodiade
Hérodiade is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont, based on the novella Hérodias by Gustave Flaubert...
and Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
's Eileen
Eileen (musical)
Eileen is a comic opera with music by Victor Herbert and lyrics and book by Henry Blossom based loosely on the 1835 novel Rory O'Moore by Herbert's grandfather, Samuel Lover. Set in 1798, the story concerns an Irish revolutionary arrested by the British for treason...
with soprano Vivian Della Chiesa
Vivian Della Chiesa
Vivian Della Chiesa was an American lyric soprano who achieved a high level of popularity in the United States singing on the radio during the 1940s and the early 1950s. She performed a wide variety of classical and popular works from opera to musical theatre, jazz, and popular songs...
and Lavalle conducting the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
.
In the early 1950s Morgan and his family moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,947 at the 2010 census...
, and there he befriended the artist Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
who did a charcoal drawing of Morgan which the singer used in publicity material. After moving to Massachusetts, he became a regular performer with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
. With the BSO he performed under conductor Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
on several occasions, including 1955 performances of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's Missa Solemnis
Missa Solemnis (Beethoven)
The Missa solemnis in D Major, Op. 123 was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1819-1823. It was first performed on April 7, 1824 in St. Petersburg, under the auspices of Beethoven's patron Prince Nikolai Galitzin; an incomplete performance was given in Vienna on 7 May 1824, when the Kyrie,...
and Beethoven's Fidelio
Fidelio
Fidelio is a German opera in two acts by Ludwig van Beethoven. It is Beethoven's only opera. The German libretto is by Joseph Sonnleithner from the French of Jean-Nicolas Bouilly which had been used for the 1798 opera Léonore, ou L’amour conjugal by Pierre Gaveaux, and for the 1804 opera Leonora...
(as Rocco). Other engagements with major symphony orchestras soon followed, including performances with conductors Charles Munch
Charles Munch
Charles Munch may refer to:*Charles Munch , American artist*Charles Munch , orchestral conductorSee also:*Charles Munch discography, recordings of Munch, the conductor...
, Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
, and Seiji Ozawa
Seiji Ozawa
is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
. He was also frequently heard at the Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
, making his debut there in 1950 as Don Anchise in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera
La finta giardiniera , K. 196, is an Italian opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart wrote it in Munich in January 1775 when he was 18 years old and it received its first performance on January 13 at the Salvatortheater in Munich...
with Ray Smolover
Ray Smolover
Ray Smolover is an American vocal pedagogist, voice teacher, tenor, opera librettist, opera director, and hazzan. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and Columbia University. One of his notable students was Richard Kiley...
as Count Belfiore, Julian Patrick
Julian Patrick
Julian Patrick was an American operatic baritone and voice teacher. Born in Mississippi, Patrick grew up in Birmingham, Alabama where he was a member of the Apollo Boys Choir...
as Roberto, Marni Nixon
Marni Nixon
Marni Nixon is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.-Biography:Born Margaret Nixon...
as Serpetta, and Sarah Caldwell
Sarah Caldwell
Sarah Caldwell was a notable American opera conductor, impresario, and stage director of opera.- Life :Caldwell was born in Maryville, Missouri, and grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas. She was a child prodigy and gave public performances on the violin by the time she was ten years old...
conducting.
In 1951 Morgan sang two roles with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
: Pantalone in The Love for Three Oranges and Silvio in Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
. Also that year he sang the role of Leperello in Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
with Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky
Boris Goldovsky was a Russian conductor and broadcast commentator, active in the United States. He has been called an important "popularizer" of opera in America...
's New England Opera Theater
New England Opera Theater
The New England Opera Theatre was an American opera company that was active from 1945 to 1985. Founded by Boris Goldovsky in January 1945, the company was originally based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was initially established under the sponsorship of the New England Conservatory as a training...
. He was heard in succeeding years with that company as Figaro in The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
(1952–1954), Podesta (1953), the title role in Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
(1955), and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
(1956). He sang the role of Sharpless in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
with the Opera Guild of Greater Miami in 1953 with Licia Albanese
Licia Albanese
Licia Albanese is an Italian-born American operatic soprano. Noted especially for her portrayals of the lyric heroines of Verdi and Puccini, Albanese was a leading artist with the Metropolitan Opera of New York from 1940 to 1966...
in the title role.
Later singing career
In November 1955 Morgan celebrated the 200th anniversary of Mozart's birth singing Guglielmo in Così fan tutteCosì fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
with the San Antonio Symphony
San Antonio Symphony
The San Antonio Symphony is a full-time professional symphony orchestra based in San Antonio, Texas. Its season runs from late September to early June...
; reprising the role the following year in concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District.-History:...
and in a fully staged production that toured the United States. The touring cast notably included Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin
Phyllis Curtin is an American classical soprano who had an active career in operas and concerts from the early 1950s through the 1980s. She was known for her creation of new roles such as the title role in the Carlisle Floyd opera Susannah, Catherine Earnshaw in Floyd's Wuthering Heights, and in...
as Fiordiligi and David Lloyd
David Lloyd (tenor)
David George Lloyd was a Welsh singer. Lloyd, a tenor, was noted for being one of the first Welsh solo singers to seek a broader audience beyond Wales, in the concert halls and recording studios of England, mainland Europe, and North America.During his lifetime, Lloyd was renowned in opera,...
as Ferrando. In 1958 he performed Guglielmo on a television broadcast of the opera made by the NBC Opera Theatre
NBC Opera Theatre
The NBC Opera Theatre was an American opera company operated by the National Broadcasting Company from 1949 to 1964. The company was established specifically for the purpose of filming both established and new operas for television...
with John Alexander
John Alexander (tenor)
John Alexander was an American operatic tenor who had a substantial career during the 1950s through the 1980s. He had a long standing relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, singing with that company every year between 1961 and 1987 for a total of 379 performances...
as Ferrando and Frances Bible
Frances Bible
Frances Lillian Bible was an American operatic mezzo-soprano who had a thirty long year career at the New York City Opera between 1948 and 1978. She also made a fair number of opera appearances with other companies throughout the United States, but only made a limited number of appearances abroad...
as Dorabella. He had previously toured the United States with the NBC Opera Theatre in 1957–1958, singing Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
with Peter Herman Adler
Peter Herman Adler
Peter Herman Adler was an American conductor born in Austria–Hungary in Gablonz an der Neiße, which is now in the Czech Republic....
conducting. He performed in another opera broadcast for NBC in 1961, the premiere of Leonard Kastle
Leonard Kastle
Leonard Gregory Kastle was an opera composer, librettist, and director, though he is best known as the writer/director of The Honeymoon Killers, his only venture into the cinema, for which he did all his own research. He was educated at the Curtis Institute of Music studying under opera composer...
's Deseret. In April 1958 he gave a highly successful New York City recital debut at Town Hall
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
with Paul Ulanowsky
Paul Ulanowsky
Paul Alexander Theodore Ulanowsky was an Austrian-American pianist, accompanist, vocal coach, and music educator of Austrian and Ukrainian decent. He began his career as the pianist for the Vienna Philharmonic from 1927-1935...
serving as his accompianist. In 1959 he performed in the United States premiere of Offenbach's Le Voyage dans la Lune
Le Voyage dans la Lune
A Trip to the Moon is a 1902 French black-and-white silent science fiction film. It is based loosely on two popular novels of the time: Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and H. G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon....
with the Opera Company of Boston
Opera Company of Boston
The Opera Company of Boston was an American opera company located in Boston, Massachusetts that was active during the late 1950s through the early 1990s. The company was founded by American conductor Sarah Caldwell in 1958 under the name Boston Opera Group. At one time, the touring arm of the...
. That same year he recorded Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Threni
Threni (Stravinsky)
Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae, usually referred to simply as Threni, is a setting by Igor Stravinsky of verses from the Book of Lamentations in the Latin of the Vulgate, for solo singers, chorus and orchestra. It is important in Stravinsky's output as his first and longest...
for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
.
In 1962 Morgan sang Jochanaan in Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
' Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
with Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers was an American conductor. He was highly-regarded for his work in opera.-Biography:...
conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal is a symphony orchestra based in Montréal, Québec, Canada, with Montréal's Place des Arts as its home.-History:...
. In 1963 he sang a duet opposite Joan Sutherland
Joan Sutherland
Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, OM, AC, DBE was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano noted for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s through to the 1980s....
on The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour
The Bell Telephone Hour is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television...
. On 19 January 1964 he was the bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem
Requiem (Mozart)
The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death. A completion by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a requiem Mass to commemorate the...
for the Solemn Requiem Mass honouring the death of President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, celebrated by Richard Cardinal Cushing
Richard Cardinal Cushing
Richard James Cushing was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Boston from 1944 to 1970, and was created a cardinal in 1958.-Early life and education:...
, the Archbishop of Boston, who had before presided Kennedy's funeral. In the mid 1960s his performance career began to slack as he began to shift towards a second career as a voice teacher. One of his last performances was as Rocco in the Opera Company of Boston's 1976 production of Fidelio.
Teaching career and later life
Morgan began his teaching career in Boston during the early 1960s at the New England Conservatory. In 1962 he joined the music faculty of Boston UniversityBoston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, where he was chairman of the voice department for 11 years. One of his notable students there was the soprano Lauren Flanigan
Lauren Flanigan
Lauren Flanigan is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She has enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every year since 1990...
. In 1982 he retired from Boston University and moved to Georgia, where he taught for 11 more years at Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
. He lived in retirement in Carrollton, Georgia
Carrollton, Georgia
Carrollton is a city in West Georgia, United States, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,388...
where he died of complications of an appendectomy at the age of 89.