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Born: April 30, 1940 - Piedmont, California, USA
Died: September 2, 2011 - Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria; Germany |
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The American soprano and organist, Nancy Zilian (née Burns), decided to become a singer as a child. She first achieved great successes on the piano. At the age of 18 she left the USA to study singing in Germany. In Berlin she received private lessons from the opera singer Elsa Varena, who was also the teacher of René Kollo at the same time.
Nancy Burns gave her first concerts as an oratorio singer. After some auditions in German opera houses, she decided for the concert singing, because she wanted to put less of her person in the spotlight than let alone their voice to advantage. In no time, her wonderfully clear and focused lyrical soprano voice caught the attention of famous conductors. Karl Richter and Helmuth Rilling engaged her for the performance of J.S. Bach cantatas. One of her greatest successes was the performance of J. Haydn's opera Armida in Cologne in 1968. In addition to the famous soprano Gundula Janowitz, Nancy Burns excelled at the time in the role of Zelmira. In 1970 she sang together with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Johannes Brahms' Requiem under the baton of Karl Richter.
In 1969, Nancy Burns married Detlef Zilian (who died in 2009), a senior lawyer at Hipp company. Both moved to Pfaffenhofen and got their daughter Stefanie. Because of the ongoing travel that life as a concert singer brought with her, Nancy Zilian ended her singing career at its peak and henceforth devoted herself to the family. Only when her daughter left home, Nancy Zilian sought new musical challenges and began in 1995 with the organ. This was a stroke of luck for the Evangelische Kirchengemeinde in Pfaffenhofen. Nancy Zilian played the organ in church services, in concerts and became a constant companion of the church choir.
Nancy Zilian died on September 2, 2011 in Pfaffenhofen at the age of 71. Many Pfaffenhofen people knew her as an organist in the Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kreuzkirche and appreciated her endearing and optimistic nature. In the funeral service in the Kreuzkirche, Nancy Zilian was honored as a great artist, who in her professional and at the same time completely unarrogant way had the great gift to inspire and to be inspired. |
