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Born: 1932 (?) - Havre, Montana, USA
Died: November 7, 2008 - San Francisco, California, USA |
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The American mezzo-soprano, Margery C. Tede, earned a bachelor's degree from Monticello College in Godfrey, Ill., and a master's degree in English from the University of Montana (1964).
Margery Tede began her professional singing career with the San Francisco Opera Chorus, and later enrolled in the Merola Opera Program, where she sang roles in operas by Puccini, Verdi and Béla Bartók. She performed in critically acclaimed roles in operas throughout the USA, Europe, Central America and Asia. She performed regularly in both contemporary and traditional repertoire and was a staunch supporter of the arts in the Bay Area She was a close friend of the composer and critic Virgil Thomson, whose music she often sang; she and Charles Shere co-edited "Everbest Ever," a collection of Thomson's correspondence with local musical luminaries. She was also a champion of Bay Area composers Kirke Mechem and Ron McFarland.
Margery Tede also appeared regularly in more conventional repertoire, singing with the Marin Opera, the Oakland Chamber Orchestra and Pocket Opera. Reviewing her Marin Opera performance as Mama McCourt in Douglas Moore's Ballad of Baby Doe in 1987 in The Chronicle, music critic Marilyn Tucker wrote simply, "the sun shone whenever she was on stage." She also appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival (1967).
Margery Tede was a founder and president of the American Concert Association, which provides scholarship funds to aspiring artists and taught piano and voice privately.
Margery Tede died in 2008 at California Pacific Medical Center after a brief illness. She was 76. She was survived by her husband, Dieter, of San Francisco; daughters, Kirsten Ritchie of Oakland and Nikola Tede of Muir Beach; son, Karl Tede of Larkspur; five grandsons; sister, Katherine Davis; and brother, David Crockett. |
