June Anderson (born December 30, 1952) is a Grammy Award-winning American coloratura soprano. Originally known for bel canto performances of Rossini, Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, she was the first non-Italian ever to win the prestigious Bellini d'Oro prize. Subsequently, she has extended her repertoire to include a wide variety of other roles, including those from the Russian repertoire and works by Richard Strauss. In 2008, Anderson was elevated to "Commandeur" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2007 received a "Victoire d'honneur" at the "Victoires de la Musique Classique" in Paris. Anderson has performed in noted opera houses including La Scala, Covent Garden, La Fenice, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Colón Theater. She has collaborated with conductors Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kent Nagano and Michael Tilson Thomas, and has sung opposite Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Carlo Bergonzi, Roberto Alagna, Rockwell Blake, Jerry Hadley and Salvatore Fisichella. Anderson has had an extensive recording career, dating from the 1980s to the present. June Anderson was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Wallingford, Connecticut. She attended Lyman Hall High School where she was the 5th highest in academic standing among 505 graduates in the class of 1970. She began vocal studies at age 11 and at age 17 was the youngest finalist (at that time) in the Metropolitan Opera auditions. She received a degree from Yale University in French, graduating cum laude and then decided to pursue a career in singing. Anderson studied voice under Robert Leonard in New York City. She had numerous auditions but no engagements at first. She has said that she continued her pursuit as a challenge, giving herself a deadline of two years (after which she would, if unsuccessful, enter law school). "No one wanted to know my name. I was down to my last $50. That's when I decided I was going to be a singer if it killed me!" Anderson sang in several productions in the Yale/New Haven area while still a high school student. In 1968, she sang in a production of Haydn's "L'Infedelta Delusa" at Yale University. In 1970 she appeared as Gilda with the New Haven Opera Company in a production of Verdi's Rigoletto. She made her professional opera debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute at the New York City Opera in 1978. Several years later, she would voice as the Queen of the Night was used in the Oscar-winning Amadeus, directed by Milos Forman. While at New York City Opera, she sang in a wide range of operas including The Golden Cockerel by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rigoletto and La Traviata by Verdi, Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia, Giulio Cesare by Handel, and Mozart's Don Giovanni (as Elvira). In 1981, she sang the three lead soprano roles in Les Contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach, the first soprano to do so at New York City Opera since Beverly Sills in in 1973. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.