Rondelli Remembered: Recital to Honor Her Brilliant Career in Opera and Her Outstanding Success as a Teacher of Classical Voice

Summary: Barbara Rondelli Perry was born October 19, 1939 in Chicopee, Kansas. She graduated from Chicopee Grade School (1944-1952), Cherokee High School (1952-1956), and Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg with a Bachelor of Music and Vocal Performance (1956-1960). After graduation, Barbara was a Fulbright Scholar and attended the Royal Academy of Music, London, where she studied with Dame Eva Turner, (1960-1962). Upon graduation, she received a Licentiate Diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music in Performance and Teaching of Singing. Barbara attended the Accademia Chigiana, Siena, Italy, where she studied in Art Song and Performance (1963). In 1963, she married Johan van der Merwe, an orchestral conductor from South Africa. Barbara sang professionally in Europe, America, and South Africa from 1964-1975. In 1978, she received a Master of Music from Kansas State College, Pittsburg, Kansas in Vocal Performance. From 1975-2011, she was Professor of Music and Voice in the Department of Music, University of Toledo and was named Professor Emerita. Her husband Johan van der Merew died in 1996 and she later married Richard Russell Perry, Professor of Higher Education, Emeritus, University of Toledo on June 11, 2000.

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