William Blankenship


William Leonard Blankenship was an American operatic tenor, music pedagogue at the collegiate level, stage and television actor, and stage director.

Biography

In Europe, Blankenship sang roles at the opera houses in Vienna, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Braunschweig, Bern, Mannheim, Brunswick, Munich, Berne, :de:Stadttheater Klagenfurt|Klagenfurt, Bregenz. In the United States, he sang with the Santa Fe Opera, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. He has sung in international festivals in Moscow, Salzburg, Vienna, Munich, and Rio de Janeiro. He performed concerts with major orchestras on radio and television.

Selected discography

After a year at the University of Texas at Austin, Blankenship, in 1947, won a three-year scholarship to study with Mary McCormic at the University of North Texas College of Music, where in 1950 he earned a Bachelor of Music degree. While an undergraduate at North Texas, he sang major opera roles with the school's Opera Workshop directed by Mary McCormic. After three years in the Air Force, he attended the Juilliard School, studying voice with Mack Harrell and Povla Frijsh.
In 1954, Blankenship was selected by Mary Garden for the National Arts Foundation's operatic fellowship, which included a $1,200 stipend and promise of engagements in leading opera houses of France and Italy. Garden, who had auditioned 300 young American singers said that Blankenship was the finest tenor voice she had heard in America. The fellowship included a tour of study at the Vienna Academy of Music from 1955 to 1956, where he earned an opera diploma.
In 1971, the University of North Texas honored Blankenship as a "Distinguished Graduate."

Family

William Blankenship, in 1952, married Barbara Estelle Connally. They had three children:
  1. Beverly Elizabeth Blankenship, stage and opera director
  2. Rebecca Blankenship, an operatic soprano
  3. Todd Lawrence Blankenship
William Blankenship died December 2, 2017, in Vienna. When he died, he had been married to Sawako Yamada, a pianist. Blankenship was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering and his ashes are buried there.