Sigma Alpha Iota

'Ghostess with the Mostess' Marni Nixon Honored by Peabody Institute O n May 26, Johns Hopkins University awarded SAI Honorary Member Marni Nixon with the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music in America. The award is named for the founder of the university's Peabody Institute. Initiated by the Sigma Tau Chapter University of Southern California in 1962, Nixon, called "The Ghostess with the Mostess" by Time Magazine, received no onscreen credit for her voiceover work singing for lead actresses such as Deborah Kerr in The King and I (1956), Natalie Wood in West Side Story (1961), and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (1964). Her on-screen film roles include Aunt Alice in I Think I Do, Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music, and the singing voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan. "Marni Nixon is most famous for her marvelous playback singing in films known to all," said Peabody Institute Director Jeffrey Sharkey. "But singers of classical music have also long admired her performances of works by Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and other émigré composers, SAI Honorary Member Marni Nixon with whom she was closely associated." Nixon's connections to the 20thSAI and the peabody medal century modernists began at Los Angeles City College, where she studied piano with Leonard The following SAIs have been honored by Stein, a pupil and assistant of Arnold Schoenberg. the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Her vocal gifts and superior musicianship Institute. The Peabody medal was first made her a favored interpreter of the works of bestowed in 1980. Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Ernst Krenek, MEMBER LAUREATES among others. Libby Larsen (2010) Nixon, 81, continues to perform. Her varied career, recounted in the 2006 memoir I Could Honorary Members Have Sung All Night, will itself be the subject of Marian Anderson (1981) a new one-woman show, Mostly Marni Nixon. Eileen Farrell (1999) A cabaret conceived and directed by Wendy Taucher, Mostly Marni Nixon will premiere at the National Arts Associates New York nightclub Feinstein's at Loews Regency William Schwann (1984) in April 2012. William Schuman (1985) She has won four Emmys for Best Actress André Watts (1990) on her children's TV show called Boomerang and Dominick Argento (1993) two gold records for Songs for Mary Poppins and Wynton Marsalis (1996) Mulan. She was nominated twice for classical Emmys. Her Broadway work includes the role of Composers Bureau Members Heidi Schiller in Stephen Sondheim's Follies and Milton Babbitt (1983) originating the roles of Sadie McKibben in Opal, John Corigliano (2004) Edna in Taking My Turn, and Aunt Kate in James Joyce's The Dead. 8 PAN PIPES SUMMER 2011 sai-national.org In Regional and Off-Broadway her roles have included Nurse in Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, Fraulein Schneider in Cabaret, and Eunice Miller in Kander and Ebb's 70, Girls, 70. In the premiere of Richard Wagner's Opera Ballymore at Skylight Opera in Milwaukee, WI, she originated the role of Mrs. Wilson. In addition to her numerous appearances on TV shows, she was a frequent guest and sidekick for Liberace and Victor Borge. Her national tours include her show Marni Nixon: The Voice of Hollywood. A much sought after judge of Metropolitan Opera Auditions and the National Association of Teachers and Singing, Nixon presents Master Classes in colleges and universities and teaches privately throughout the USA. About Peabody George Peabody believed in the power of the artist to open the minds and enrich the lives of others. The Peabody Institute, which he founded in 1857, is the practical embodiment of this belief. From its beginnings, it has brought together a community of artists, teachers, and scholars to train other artists and to spread, by their precept and example, an understanding of what the arts can do to uplift the quality of human life. Today, the Peabody Institute concentrates primarily upon music. Through its constituent divisions, the Preparatory and the Conservatory, it trains musicians of every age and at every level, from small children to seasoned professionals, from dedicated amateurs to winners of international competitions. It challenges all its students to aspire to their highest potential as artists and human beings. It seeks to promote a respect for music as a discipline of the mind and spirit, a joyful affirmation of life, and a passionate commitment to an ideal. By connecting its students with the great traditions of the past, Peabody gives them the key with which to unlock the future. The Peabody Conservatory strives to provide aspiring artists with the skills to pursue professional careers in music as well as with the education to become leaders in the cultural life of their communities. NIXON continued on page 28

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