Obituary received:
Dinah Bryant passed away on June 4th in Brussels, where she shared more than 40 years of life and music with her devoted husband, pianist Daniel Blumenthal.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 1, 1953, Miss Bryant graduated from Georgia State University. Her transition from pianist and cellist to vocalist was serendipitous: while accompanying a fellow student in the studio of vocal professor Peter Harrower, Harrower, frustrated with the student’s phrasing, asked Bryant to demonstrate. Her singing so impressed him that he invited her to begin vocal studies the very next day.
Bryant went on to pursue further training at the Manhattan School of Music under Daniel Ferro, launching a distinguished international career in opera, concert performance, and recording that spanned more than three decades. She gained international recognition as the voice of Sophie in the 1988 Academy Award–nominated film The Music Teacher (Le Maître de Musique), starring bass- baritone José van Dam.
Bryant performed more than 50 operatic roles across Europe and throughout the Americas. While she began her career in lighter soprano repertoire, by the 1990s she had evolved into a full-fledged dramatic soprano, taking on iconic roles including the title characters in Salome and Ariadne auf Naxos, Leonora in Il Trovatore and Fidelio, Sieglinde, Senta, Chrysothemis, Donna Anna, and Marie in Wozzeck.
Her discography includes recordings of Lieder by Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, and Joseph Marx, all in collaboration with her husband, Daniel Blumenthal. Among the performances she found most artistically fulfilling were as soloist in major orchestral works such as Mahler’s
Symphonies No. 2, 4, and 8; Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis; Handel’s Messiah; Verdi’s Messa da Requiem; and Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder.
Bryant was a member of the voice faculty of the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Brussels.
She is survived by her husband, Daniel Blumenthal; their daughter, Sophie and granddaughter, Kristal, both of Centerville, Virginia; and her brother, Chester of Lavonia, Georgia.
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