Gretchen Garnett, alumna and assistant professor emerita of music, died Dec. 15, just one day before her 100th birthday. Garnett was a longtime faculty member in and supporter of the Department of Music.
As an undergraduate at Western Reserve University, Garnett was a soprano soloist. She sang the role of Belinda in a performance of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas on the stage at Severance Hall, Clorinda in a production of Monteverdi’s Tancredi e Clorinda in what is now Reinberger Chamber Hall at Severance, and Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo.
After her undergraduate career, she became a voice teacher at the Cleveland Music School Settlement and faculty member at Western Reserve, teaching voice students with great success until her retirement.
Beverly Simmons, lecturer in the Department of Music, and Ross W. Duffin, the Fynette H. Kulas Professor of Music, wrote a tribute to Garnett. It is available in full on the Cleveland Classical website.