Sylvia. Singer. Survivor. Sylvia McNair's 25-year career as one of the world's leading singers has brought her two Grammy Awards, over 70 recordings and worldwide accolades, but she values her most recent success above all others: She Is A Survivor. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, Sylvia persevered through five major surgeries, months of chemo and radiation, all while performing everyplace from New York to Florida, joining the faculty of the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University and never losing hope. She's living large and singing as beautifully as ever.
There's another S word, add "Segue" to the list because SurvivorSingerSylvia has segued from opera and oratorio to the Great American Songbook, the music with which she feels most at home. Now, instead of singing "V'adoro pupille" as Cleopatra to Julius Caesar on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, she's singing "Embraceable You" to rave reviews. Barrymore Lawrence Scherer in the Wall Street Journal wrote (March 2007): "In recent years, such first-rank classical artists as Renee Fleming and Sylvia McNair have proved adept at jazz vocals. The idiom is in their blood" while Rex Reed, of McNair's Algonquin Oak Room debut wrote, "Her phrasing is exemplary. Her modulations are inspired. I could get used to this kind of ecstasy."
Since 1982, Sylvia has performed with almost every major American and European orchestra and opera company, including The Met, Chicago Lyric Opera, the Salzburg Festival, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Opera, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philharmonics of Vienna and Berlin, working with an array of the world's most prominent conductors, including Masur, Ozawa, Slatkin, Marriner, Previn and the late Robert Shaw, the musician she credits for giving her the important opportunities that started her career. For her, the highlights of her career include singing for Pope John Paul II, Hillary Rodham Clinton and the US Supreme Court by invitation of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. A native of Mansfield, Ohio, Sylvia has received honorary doctorates from Westminster College and Indiana University and the Ohio Governor's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Arts and Entertainment. | 
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