Great Barrington — Star soprano of the legendary New York Pro Musica and most beloved educator Betty Wilson Long passed away in her sleep March 17th, 2015.
Betty was born in 1924 in the small Appalachian town of Frostburg, Maryland. Frostburg was a tightly knit coal mining town nestled between the boarders of West Virginia and Pennsylvania in the Allegany mountain range. She grew up dirt poor through the depths of the Great Depression. Her father, being something of a Renaissance man, was a central figure in the community: organizing neighbors to cooperatively buy and butcher livestock for meat, growing vegetables and raising chickens on their postage stamp lot. The center of her community was the local Methodist Church where Betty learned to sing in the Gospel choir and developed a keen ear for harmonies. Her mother, who was also a gifted singer, would rehearse Betty while they cooked the family meals together. The sound of their singing was fondly remembered by their neighbors.
After graduating from the newly expanded Frostburg State Teachers College, the local church community raised the money to send her to the Juilliard School of Music where she began her journey as a professional musician.
After Juilliard, Betty became an original member of the New York Pro Musica Antiqua under Noah Greenburg. The Pro Musica was most famous for its revival of the medieval Play of Daniel that remains a popular liturgical drama to this day. The groundbreaking performances were held at the Cloisters in New York City and were recorded by Decca records. The original album is considered one of the great live early music recordings of all time and was consequently inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Betty toured with the Pro Musica throughout the United States and Europe for seven years. Additionally, she appeared on Broadway numerous times including Jean Anouilh’s The Lark (with incidental music from Leonard Bernstein) and The Golden Age (an evening of Elizabethan words and music). She frequently appeared in oratorio and concerts in the New York area. She performed on television and radio in Great Britain, France, Canada and the U.S.; sang for several motion picture sound tracks including the Sidney Lumet film The Group; and recorded for Columbia/Sony, Decca/MCA, RCA, and Mercury. Betty consistently received rave reviews from the New York Press but was particularly proud of the stellar praise showered upon her by the influential New York Times critic and musicologist, Edward Downes.
In 1967, her family transitioned to the Berkshires where she refocused her life on being a mother and teacher. She taught first and second grades at the former Dewey and Housatonic schools for a number of years before devoting her time to teaching voice at Bard College at Simon’s Rock for nearly 20 years. Throughout that time she continued to perform in a wide range of venues including solo recitals, cabaret nights, and as part of the Stockbridge Chamber Concerts. In her later professional years, she emphasized romantic modern music from Lieder to Copland to Ives, but she also was not shy about creating more festive evenings that drew from the Great American Songbook. She also was a member of the early music trio Conviviorum Deliciae with Edward Flower and her longtime collaborator and dear friend Bernard Krainis. The group performed frequently in the area as well as New York City.
For many years she directed a community chorus that performed around the Berkshires and was a fixture at the Red Lion Inn, in Stockbridge, at Christmas. She lovingly referred to the chorus as “my ladies” although there were some notable male members from time to time. She took special pride in their dedication and accomplishments.
Her passions included gourmet cooking, drawing cats, and tennis. In later years, golf became an important sustaining activity.
In more recent times she took delight in her two granddaughters. “Grandma Betty Day” was a weekly gathering of some of her granddaughter Ella’s classmates to learn music, performance and crafts that continued throughout Ella’s time in elementary and middle school.
Betty is predeceased by her husband, Robert Long (the writer) of Housatonic and Toronto; as well as her two brothers Robert “Uncle Bob” Wilson and Richard “Deacon” Wilson, both of Frostburg, Md., and her brother-in-law Sir Colin St. Wilson (the architect) of London.
She is survived by her son David Long and his wife Georgene Poliak, two grand daughters, Ella and Simone, and Georgene’s mother Kay Poliak and brother Glenn Poliak, all from Housatonic. She is also survived by her sister-in-law, MJ Long (the architect); a niece, Sarah Jane Wilson; and a nephew, Harry Wilson, all three of London, England.
A small service for family and close friends with be held when the daffodils are in full bloom at the family farm in Housatonic. At this time her ashes will be laid to rest among the flowers on the land she loved so deeply. The date of that service has not yet been set.
