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The American composer, tenor, musical restorer and translator, Edward Quade Winter, was the son of Melvin Winter, a car dealer, and Margaret Winter, a housewife. Early in life his family referred to him as Quade and the name stuck all through his life. He graduated from the University of Oregon in 1978 with degrees in theater and music. He began a musical theatre career but soon turned to classical music. He graduated from the Merola Opera Program in 1980. While there, he sang with San Francisco Opera.
Quade Winter then began a career as an operatic tenor, singing roles in opera and oratorio, during the next 23 years, in Germany (where he lived in the 1980’s), the USA, Canada, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. For example, in 1982 he appeared at the Carmel Bach Festival. In 1993, he sang Calaf in Turandot with New York City Opera. In 1994, he sang Herod in Richard Strauss's Salome with Virginia Opera, role he repeated in 2000 with Opera de las Americas in the Dominican Republic. He played Aegistheus in Strauss's Elektra with the Canadian Opera Company in 1996, repeating the role with the Hawaii Opera Theatre in 1999. As a professional opera singer he sang in over 60 operas, with over 20 leading roles. He counted among his achievements singing at Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Opera, and at the La Scala Opera House in Italy.
In 1996, Quade Winter's first opera score, replacing Arthur Sullivan's lost score to Thespis, was given its world premiere by the Ohio Light Opera. His second score, The Carp, replacing Alfred Cellier's lost score, was requested in 1998 by The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive for its Web Opera series. It is considered to be the first opera ever to be composed expressley for the Internet. It was orchestrated and performed by the Ohio Light Opera in 1999.
From 1997 to 2004, Quade Winter was Composer-in-Residence at the Ohio Light Opera, and oversaw productions of many of his opera translations, including Boccaccio (von Suppé), The Gypsy Baron (Strauss), The Merry Widow (Lehàr) and Die Fledermaus (Strauss). The Ohio Light Opera commissioned a number of critical editions of seldom performed operettas, starting with Victor Herbert's Eileen (1997), utilizing Herbert's original manuscripts in the collection of the Library of Congress. Similar reconstructions followed: Herbert's The Red Mill (2001) and Sweethearts (2002),[17] and Reginald De Koven's Robin Hood (2004). These works were issued as CD's on the Newport and Albany labels. In 2009, Winter restored Victor Herbert's The Magic Knight. He performed similar services for various organizations, including the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization's new engraving of Hammerstein's Carmen Jones.
Quade Winter continued to compose original music as well as translate and arrange existing music. Of late Quade had translated and arranged pieces for both the Pendleton Men’s Chorus and the Oregon East Symphony. Even though Quade had a worldwide career in music, he was happy to be living in Pendleton again and enjoyed his work with local musicians.
Edward Quade Winter died at his home in Pendleton on October 8, 2019. He was 68. He is survived by his sister Liz Nase of North Plaines, Oregon, and brothers Rick Winter (Sandy) of Tigard, Oregon, George Winter (Ruth) of Sunnyvale, California, and Phil Winter (Boone) of Pendleton. |
