Cathy Berberian
Catherine Anahid Berberian (July 4, 1925 – March 6, 1983) was an American mezzo-soprano and composer based in Italy. She worked closely with many contemporary avant-garde music composers, including Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Sylvano Bussotti, Darius Milhaud, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and Igor Stravinsky. She also interpreted works by Claudio Monteverdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Kurt Weill, Philipp zu Eulenburg and others.
Also recorded as Catherine Berberian · Catherine Anahid Berberian
Cathy Berberian

Rob Mieremet / Anefo · Nationaal Archief 925-6625 · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
- Born
- 1925. · Attleboro.
- Died
- 1983. · Paris.
- Nationality
- United States.
- Occupation
- linguist, composer, translator, singer and musician.
- Fields
- music.
- Education
- New York University and Columbia University.
- Languages
- English and Italian.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Catherine Anahid Berberian (July 4, 1925 – March 6, 1983) was an American mezzo-soprano and composer based in Italy. She worked closely with many contemporary avant-garde music composers, including Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, John Cage, Henri Pousseur, Sylvano Bussotti, Darius Milhaud, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, and Igor Stravinsky. She also interpreted works by Claudio Monteverdi, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Kurt Weill, Philipp zu Eulenburg and others.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Cathy Berberian. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
technical hold · checked 25 September 2026
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
gnd · 1097269620 · wikidata · Q285462 · wikipedia · Cathy Berberian
In this article
Life and career
Life and career
Catherine Anahid Berberian was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, to Armenian parents Yervant and Louise Berberian. The elder of two children, she spent the first twelve years of her life in Attleboro; the family moved to New York City in 1937, where she graduated from Manhattan's Julia Richman High School for Girls. From an early age, she showed an interest in Armenian folk music and dance as well as traditional opera. While still in high school, she was the director and soloist of the Armenian Folk Group in New York City. For a time, she was an undergraduate at New York University, but left to take evening classes in theatre and music at Columbia University, working during the day to support her studies. She went on to study music in Paris with soprano Marya Freund in 1948, and in 1949 she went to Milan to study singing at the Milan Conservatory with Giorgina del Vigo. In 1950, she received a Fulbright scholarship to continue her studies there. Although she had appeared in several student productions, radio broadcasts and informal concerts during the early 1950s, she made her formal debut in 1957 at Incontri Musicali, a contemporary music festival in Naples. The following year her performance of John Cage's Aria with Fontana Mix in its world premiere established her as a major exponent of contemporary vocal music. Her American debut came in 1960 at the Tanglewood Music Festival, where she premiered Circles by the Italian composer Luciano Berio. From 1950 to 1964 Berberian was married to Berio, whom she met when they were students at the Milan Conservatory. They had one daughter, Cristina Berio, born in 1953. Berberian became Berio's muse and collaborator both during and after their marriage; he wrote for her Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) (1958), Circles (1960), Visage (1961), Folk Songs (1964–73), Sequenza III (1965), and Recital I (for Cathy) (1972). In 1967 Berberian released a 12-track album (recorded in Paris) that consisted entirely of Baroque-style cover versions of songs by the Beatles, entitled Beatles Arias. The instrumental backing was scored for a string quartet or wind quintet plus harpsichord or organ. All the tracks were arranged by Guy Boyer and most of the songs feature him on harpsichord. The original US cover illustration for the album (resembling that of the Beatles's single "Revolution") was by Roberto Zamarin while the UK's was by Gerald Scarfe. The album was reissued on CD in 2005, with bonus tracks including a 1975 French radio interview and three live recordings of songs from the album recorded at French music festivals in the early 1980s, with accompaniment by Italian pianist and composer Bruno Canino from arrangements by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, who had previously studied under Berio. Among the other composers who wrote specifically for Berberian were Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Hans Werner Henze, William Walton, Igor Stravinsky, and Anthony Burgess. Although Berberian was based in Milan from the time of her studies there, she taught at both Vancouver University and the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne during the 1970s. She is mentioned in the Steely Dan song "Your Gold Teeth" from their 1973 album Countdown to Ecstasy: "Even Cathy Berberian knows / There's one roulade she can't sing." Berberian was so flattered by this mention that she sent copies of the album to her friends and family. Berberian was also a translator. With Umberto Eco she translated into Italian works by Jules Feiffer and, with other Italian translators, Woody Allen. Eco nicknamed Berberian "magnificathy"; this nickname, restyled by Berberian herself as "magnifiCathy", was later used as the title of one of her best-known albums.
Death
Death
In the last years of her life, Berberian experienced increasing health problems and almost entirely lost her vision. In order to continue performing, she committed her entire repertoire to memory. As an avid reader, the loss of her sight was a great source of frustration, and she expressed feelings of loneliness and depression. She gained weight and developed heart problems, but nevertheless continued with an ambitious concert schedule. On 7 March 1983, in a broadcast on RAI television marking the centennial of Karl Marx's death, Berberian had planned to perform the Italian version of "The Internationale" in the style of Marilyn Monroe. On 5 March she called Berio to discuss the performance, but she died the next day of a "massive" heart attack. Her body was cremated in Rome, and the urn with her ashes was brought to Milan where, on 13 March, a ceremony was held in the Armenian Church of Via Jommelli. The ashes were divided between Berberian's brother Ervant and her daughter Cristina, who later dispersed them in the Mediterranean Sea at Berio's hometown of Oneglia, Liguria, along with pink orchids (Berberian's favorite flower). Following her death, Berio composed Requies: in memoriam Cathy Berberian, which premiered in Lausanne on March 26, 1984.
The New Vocality
The New Vocality
In her article "La nuova vocalità nell'opera contemporanea" ("The New Vocality in Contemporary Music") from 1966, Berberian outlines a new role for vocal performance in contemporary music. Although the ideas were developed along with Luciano Berio during their collaboration on works such as Visage and Sequenza III, Berberian championed the concept and descriptions of the "New Vocality" which became a major part of her philosophy of performance and legacy as an artist. In contrast to traditional opera practice, wherein singers are to produce beautiful tones and nothing else, the New Vocality employs "the voice which has an endless range of vocal styles at its disposal, embracing the history of music as well as aspects of sound itself." However, the New Vocality is much more than extended vocal techniques, which are "based on the inventory of more or less unedited vocal effects which the composer may devise and the singer regurgitates." Rather, the singer should become the composer of the live performance and "use the voice in all aspects of the vocal process; a process which can be integrated as flexibly as the lines and expressions on a face." This philosophy of vocal performance can be seen as fundamental to the development of vocal performance art as well as to the work of Meredith Monk, Diamanda Galas, Laurie Anderson, and countless other vocal performers and composers.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1972
Interview and music with American mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian on KPFA's Ode to Gravity, 1972 (1972) is digitised and catalogued by Internet Archive.
1983
Cathy Berberian died at Paris.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Attleboro.
Birth place
Paris.
Death place
Film
C'è musica e musica (There is music and music). Box set of 2 DVD's (Feltrinelli, originally broadcast on RAI 1972 and released on DVD in 2013). Part 5 of this twelve-part series is titled Mille e una voce (One thousand and a voice) and is completely dedicated to Berberian. Music is the Air I Breathe (1994): documentary by Carrie de Swaan that can be seen on Swaan's production company's channel on Vimeo featuring interviews with Luciano Berio, Sylvano Bussotti, Louis Andriessen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bruno Canino, Carol Plantamura, her brother Eddie Berberian and her daughter Cristina Berio
Tributes by other artists
Songs Cathy Sang (Atlantic, 1989) by Linda Hirst Cristina Zavalloni (Radio Popolare/Sensible Records, 2003) by Cristina Zavalloni Salomix-Max: In Memoriam Cathy Berberian (Wergo, 2008) by Salome Kammer

foto dal web; sito: tumblir; Cathy Berberian e Sylvano Bussotti dopo un concerto con musiche di Berio. Anni '60;
The original uploader was Monobelus at Italian Wikipedia.

Donaueschingen: Donaueschinger Musiktage; Berio-Konzert mit Cathy Berberian
Willy Pragher · Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg W 134 Nr. 067809a / Fotograf: Willy Pragher · This image was catalogued by Staatsarchiv Freiburg of the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg under ID: W 134 Nr. 067809a.
Discography
Discography
The Fairy Queen Suite by Henry Purcell, orchestra conducted by Bruno Maderna (Angelicum, 1956) Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) by Luciano Berio (Turnabout, 1958) Allez hop, contains the songs Ora Mi Alzo and Autostrada music by Luciano Berio words by Italo Calvino, orchestra conducted by Bruno Maderna(Philips, 1960), Circles (Berio), Frammento (Bussotti), Aria with fontana mix (Cage) (Time, 1961) Luciano Berio. Sequenza III (for woman's voice). Visage (Candide, 1965) Rounds with voice by Luciano Berio, included in the Lp Das Moderne Cembalo Der Antoinette Vischer (Wergo, 1965) Elegy for J.F.K. recorded in December 1964 and included in Recent Stravinsky-Conducted by the Composer (Columbia, 1967) Beatles Arias (Philips, 1967) published in France and the UK (Polydor, 1967) with the same title. Published in the US as Revolution (Fontana Philips, 1967) and in Germany as Beatles arias for special fans (Philips, 1967) Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. Credential or think, think lucky (Wergo, 1967) Henri Pousseur-Michel Butor. Jeu de Miroirs de Votre Faust (Wergo, 1968) Monteverdi: L'Orfeo, as Messaggera and Speranza. Concentus Musicus Wien conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt (Telefunken, 1969) Stravinsky Songs. Contains "Trois Petites Chansons", "Pribautki", "Berceuses du chat", "Three songs from William Shakespeare" (Columbia 1970) Chem Grna Khagha and Karoun A, both especially recorded for the double LP made to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Armenian composer Komitas (KCC, 1970). Luciano Berio conducts his Epifanie and Folk Songs. BBC Symphony Orchestra-The Juilliard Ensemble (RCA Red Seal, 1971) magnifiCathy: the many voices of Cathy Berberian (Wergo 1971) Recital I (for Cathy) (RCA Red Seal, 1973) Cathy Berberian at the Edinburgh Festival, issued in the US as There are faires at the bottom of our garden (RCA Red Seal, 1974) Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea, as Ottavia. Concentus Musicus Wien conducted by Harnoncourt (Telefunken, 1974) Claudio Monteverdi. Lettera Amorosa-Lamento d'Arianna-Orfeo-Poppea (Telefunken, 1975) Wie einst in schöner'n Tagen-Salonmusik der Gründerzeit (EMI, 1976) William Walton. Façade and Façade 2 (OUP, 1980) Cathy Berberian's Second Hand Songs (TAT, 1981) recorded live on October 17 and 18, 1980 at the Theater am Turm in Frankfurt, Germany. La vie est un roman, original soundtrack of the film by Alan Resnais in which Berberian has a very small part and sings the song "Air de la nourrice". The film came out a month after her death. (Trema VT 33006, 1983) A la recherche de la musique perdue (RNE - Radio Nacional de Espana, APR 002, 1986) Pop Art (Ermitage, 2017)
Re-releases and compilations on CD
Re-releases and compilations on CD
magnifiCathy: the many voices of Cathy Berberian (Wergo, 1988 reprinted 2005)) Ella Fitzgerald/Elisabeth Schwarzkopf/Cathy Berberian (Stradivarius, 1988) contains Bruno Maderna Hyperion. Live recording from the Festival di Musica Contemporanea in Venice. Recorded on September 6, 1964. Cathy Berberian interpreta Berio, Pousseur, Cage (Stradivarius, 1989). Contains live recordings dated 1966, 1967 and 1969. Luciano Berio: Passaggio/Visage (BMG Ricordi, 1991) contains Visage for magnetic tape and voice. Monteverdi: L'Orfeo (Teldec 1992) Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea (Teldec 1993) Nel labirinto della voce (Ermitage, 1993, Aura, 2002, Symphonia 2016) The Unforgettable Cathy Berberian (CO, 1993) Bruno Maderna. Musica elettronica (Stradivarius, 1994) contains Dimensioni II (Invenzioni su una voce). Berio: Recital I for Cathy/Folk Songs (RCA Victor, 1995) Cathy Berberian sings Monteverdi (Teldec 1995) Hommage à Cathy Berberian (Accord, 1997) Beatles Arias (Telescopic, 2005) Berio Sequenza III/Chamber Music (Lilith, 2006). Also available on vinyl. Wie einst in schöner'n Tagen (Electrola Collection EMI 2013) Folk songs of the world—Volkslieder aus aller Welt (SWR Music 2016)
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Berberian, Cathy (1925-1983), singer, American National Biography Online, 2005
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2005
- Berberian, Cathy, Oxford Music Online, 2001
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2001
- In memoriam: Cathy Berberian, Igor Markevitch, Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, 1983
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1983
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q285462: Cathy Berberian
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Cathy Berberian”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 1097269620, Folk songs of the world (Zusammenstellung, Cathy Berberian).
Unverified · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Biography - Cathy Berberian. Cathyberberian.com.
- 2.Randel, Don Michael (1996) The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music, Harvard University Press. . p. 67
- 3.Seeber, Martina. 100 Jahre Luciano Berio: Das Hören trieb ihn um. SWR. 22 October 2025.
- 4.Cathy Berberian : Beatles Arias. Discogs.com. December 6, 2004.
- 5.Phillips, Paul (2010) A Clockwork Counterpoint. Manchester University Press. . p. 65
- 6.Robustelli, Anthony. Steely Dan FAQ: All that's Left to Know about this Elusive Band. Backbeat Books. 77. 2017. 9781495025129.
- 7.Swaan Produkties (via Vimeo). Music Is The Air I Breathe.
- 8.Swed, Mark. Mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian is due for a rediscovery. Los Angeles Times. 2013-06-19.
- 9.Page, Tim. Cathy Berberian, Mezzo-Soprano. The New York Times. 8 March 1983.
- 10.Placanica, Francesca. Cathy Berberian: Pioneer of Contemporary Vocality. Ashgate. 51. 2014.
- 11.Berberian, Cathy. La nuova vocalità nell'opera contemporanea. Cathy Berberian: Pioneer of Contemporary Vocality. 47–49.
- 12.McClary, Susan. Cathy Berberian : Pioneer of Contemporary Vocality. Ashgate. 2014. 978-1-4094-6984-1.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 6
- Page, Tim, Cathy Berberian, Mezzo-soprano, The New York Times, March 8, 1983 (Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 28). Accessed February 15, 2009.
- Universal Edition, Berio, Luciano (1925–2003) – List of Works. Accessed April 22, 2010.
- Vila, Marie Christine (2003). Cathy Berberian: Cant'actrice. Fayard.
- Paull, Jennifer (2007). Cathy Berberian and Music's Muses . Jennifer Paull.
- Karantonis, Pamela et al. (2014) Cathy Berberian: Pioneer of Contemporary Vocality. London: Routledge. 2016. .
- Rivera, Nelson. Cathy Berberian: Entrevistas. Riel Editorial. 2019. 978-1-7330593-1-2.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Verifiedscholarly publication
Berberian, Cathy, Oxford Music Online, 2001Crossref registry
Verifiedscholarly publication
In memoriam: Cathy Berberian, Igor Markevitch, Österreichische Musikzeitschrift, 1983Crossref registry
Verifiedauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 1097269620, Folk songs of the world (Zusammenstellung, Cathy Berberian).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Partially resolvedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q285462: Cathy BerberianWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Died at
1- ParisPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,108 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Catherine SauvagePerson
- Catherine VickersPerson
- Cathryn DamonPerson
- Cathryn HarrisonPerson
- Cathy ClaretPerson
- Cathy DaveyPerson
- Cathy DennisPerson
- Cathy RosierPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Cathy Berberian?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.