Article January 19, 1981 Issue

An interview: with an opera singer

John D. Moorhead with contributions from Philip van Lidth de Jeude

Philip van Lidth de Jeude, a young baritone, survived a highly competitive selection process to become a student at the Chicago Lyric Opera's school for promising operatic artists. Although still studying, he has sung several roles with the Lyric company and holds a master's degree in music. He is also a composer and a published poet. In this conversation with John D. Moorhead, he tells how the study of Christian Science strengthens his musical work.

It was the spring of my junior year in high school. I needed money to finance my social life, and my mother saw an ad for a soloist at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Ridgefield, Connecticut. I answered the ad and ended up getting the job. I had never before heard the Lesson-Sermon.^{ In the Christian Science Quarterly.}

As soloist, I sat in an alcove out of sight, so it was easy to slip out and go down to the Sunday School after I had sung. That was the way I got my first Sunday School training. Two church members with backgrounds in music encouraged me to become a professional singer, and one of them became my piano teacher. Then I went on to study voice at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the Manhattan School of Music in New York.

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