That Voice

As an adolescent in Syracuse, New York, Marcia Menter fell in love with the recorded voice of Ann Drummond-Grant, a Scottish contralto who sang with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, the legendary Gilbert and Sullivan troupe. She dreamed of singing with the company, even though it didn't hire Americans-and even though, as she soon found out, Ann Drummond-Grant had died years earlier. But her dream persisted, and for the young music lover, Drummie's glorious voice remained a living presence-a refuge from the race riots and political upheavals of her school years.

Menter earned a conservatory degree in singing before finally realizing she was not a performer at heart. She spent decades searching for Ann Drummond-Grant-visiting places she lived and interviewing people who knew her-and putting together the puzzle of her life. This is the story of a singer and her listener-of two separate lives divided by time and geography but connected in unexpected ways.