With her captivating lyric soprano voice, Kathleen Battle was among the most acclaimed figures in contemporary opera. Born August 13, 1948 in Portsmouth, Ohio, she studied at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and made her professional debut at the Spoleto Festival in Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem under conductor Thomas Schippers. Battle's Metropolitan Opera debut came in Wagner's Tannhauser, and she went on to perform in virtually all of the world's leading opera houses, among them those in Vienna, Paris, San Francisco and Chicago.