Ellen Faull

During the Great Depression, she and her brothers and sisters went door-to-door selling their mother's home-baked bread to bring in extra money.

She showed an early talent for singing and while still a teenager, her teacher introduced her to the conductor Eugene Ormandy who let her use his private box for all of the Philadelphia Orchestra's concerts.

Her final performance there was as Abigail in Jack Beeson's Lizzie Borden, a role she had created in the opera's world premiere in 1965.

She also had a voice studio in the apartment on Central Park West in New York City which she shared with her husband, Maurice Gordon, a psychiatrist who died in 1987.

Amongst her many students were Dawn Upshaw, Gianna Rolandi, Youngok Shin, Audra McDonald, Ashley Putnam, Beverly Hoch, Sarah Brightman, Gwen Verdon and Veronica Villarroel.