Sylvia McNair

Sylvia McNair (born 23 June 1956) is an American opera singer and classical recitalist who has also achieved notable success in the Broadway and cabaret genres. McNair, a soprano, has made several critically acclaimed recordings and has won two Grammy Awards.

Sylvia McNair made her professional concert debut in 1980 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Her operatic debut, in 1982, was as Sandrina in Haydn's L'infedeltà delusa with the Mostly Mozart Festival. She appeared regularly at the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Santa Fe Opera, the San Francisco Opera and at the Metropolitan Opera, and has soloed with many major European and American orchestras.

Since the late 1990s, McNair has changed the focus of her singing career to Broadway and jazz styles. In these genres she has achieved considerable critical acclaim and commercial success.

In 2006, McNair joined the voice faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, her alma mater.

McNair married conductor Hal France in 1986. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. Her treatments have included mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Sylvia McNair has made over 70 recordings, including many complete operas and recitals ranging from Mozart arias with Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields to CDs with André Previn of music by Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen (Sure Thing - The Jerome Kern Songbook / McNair, Previn and Come Rain Or Come Shine - The Harold Arlen Songbook / McNair, Previn).