by My husband, Michael Harper, who died according to health problems at the age of 61, including sarcoidosis and a collapsed lung, was an experienced counter tenor with an exceptionally beautiful voice. After a stage career in Europe and Asia, he became a professor of singing at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester in 2019.
Michael was born in Petersburg, Virginia, the son of Ruth (born Williams) and Robert Harper, who separated as a child. Michael was brought up by his mother, a hospital nurse, and he studied at the Virginia Commonwealth University before completing him at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory for Music and Doctoral Studies.
In 1994 he moved to Great Britain, sometimes motivated by her reputation for a varied music scene and studied in the Mayer-Lismann Opera Center. It was a perfect goal for a young opponent to grow and improve his craft, and his roles included the waiter in the revenge of the waiter (Jigsaw Music Theater, London, 1998); Flavio in Handels Opera the same name for new opera stage Berlin (2001); And the angel in Jonathan Doves Tobias and The Engel with the Highbury Opera Theater in the Union Chapel in London in 2012.
Michael was involved in many other areas of the music world and worked in detail as a vocal trainer and teacher. He was a trustee for the Buxton International Festival, was a patron saint of the various Voices program of the National Opera Studio to expand participation in the opera and was seen in the Sky Arts Television series 2022 that everyone can sing.
Michael awarded his talent and intellect to organizations such as the British Youth Opera, the Norske Opera in Norway, the Pegasus Opera Company, the English National Opera, the Royal Opera Studio and the Wateraid Charity. As a teacher, he looked after and inspired students of all ages with a demanding and detailed approach in connection with great friendliness.
He devoted himself to the promotion of diversity in opera performance and created the Williams-Showard Prize in 2021 to promote the study and performance of art songs from composers of African gentlemen. The price – named after his grandfather Chester Ambrose Ambrose Williams and his teacher Helen Palmer Howard – was the highlight of his life’s work. He worked on building a repository of these songs in the RNCM library and made the price in the long run.
Michael managed to keep the courtesy and the holding of an American southern gentleman, while he became completely and proudly British and combined a violent intellect and violent scholarship, strongly political opinions and a great feeling of fun. Above all, he had an extraordinary ability to establish connections to people in all parts of his life. The people who met Michael quickly found out that he was interested in real and permanent interest in them and had a remarkable ability to create friendships everywhere.
His happiest times spent the garden, cooking and time in our house in Brittany.
He is survived by me, his life partner since 1996 (we married in 2007), two brothers Larry and Pierre and a sister Felicia.
