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New York Times
Feb 6 2015
Anita Darian, a Singer With an Eclectic Range, Dies at 87
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKFEB. 6, 2015
For the singer Anita Darian, getting to Carnegie Hall not only took
practice, it also took a kazoo.
Ms. Darian's versatile voice took her there in 1960, where she sang
and played kazoo with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard
Bernstein's baton. But she reached many more listeners with her
keening, uncredited background singing on the Tokens' 1961 hit "The
Lion Sleeps Tonight."
She died on Sunday at 87 in Oceanside, N.Y. Lynda Wells, a longtime
friend and an executor of her estate, said that the cause was
complications after intestinal surgery.
Ms. Darian was a session singer and stage performer when she was asked
by the producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore and the songwriter
George David Weiss to provide backing vocals for "The Lion Sleeps
Tonight," which Mr. Weiss had adapted from a South African song.
Her soaring, high-pitched vocal provided a counterpoint to the lead
vocals and the harmonized lower-register "wimowehs," and the record
spent three weeks atop the Billboard pop chart.
She also sang behind Mickey & Sylvia on their 1957 hit "Love Is
Strange" and recorded with Burt Bacharach, Dinah Washington, Patti
Page and others, usually without credit and often emulating the eerie
sound of a theremin.
Her talents were more frequently acknowledged onstage. She made her
Carnegie Hall debut performing Mark Buzzi's "Concerto for Kazoo and
Orchestra" as part of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's Young
People's Concerts program. (The concert was broadcast on CBS.)
A City Center regular, Ms. Darian performed Natalie in Strauss's "Die
Fledermaus" and Pitti-Sing in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado"
there in 1959, and played Julie in "Show Boat" in 1961. She also
played Lady Thiang in several different City Center productions of
Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The King and I."
"As the King's head wife, Anita Darian sings 'Something Wonderful'
with a patience, belief and clarity that are wonderful in their own
right," the New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in a review of
a 1960 City Center production that starred Farley Granger and Barbara
Cook.
She was born Anita Margaret Esgandarian in Detroit on April 26, 1927,
to Anna and Garo Esgandarian, Armenian immigrants. She shortened her
name when she went into show business. She graduated from Cooley High
School in Detroit and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia
and later studied at the Juilliard School.
Ms. Darian lived in East Atlantic Beach on Long Island. Varham
Fantazian, a cousin and co-executor of her estate, said that no
immediate family members survive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/arts/music/anita-darian-a-singer-with-an-eclectic-range-dies-at-87.html?_r=0
Feb 6 2015
Anita Darian, a Singer With an Eclectic Range, Dies at 87
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKFEB. 6, 2015
For the singer Anita Darian, getting to Carnegie Hall not only took
practice, it also took a kazoo.
Ms. Darian's versatile voice took her there in 1960, where she sang
and played kazoo with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard
Bernstein's baton. But she reached many more listeners with her
keening, uncredited background singing on the Tokens' 1961 hit "The
Lion Sleeps Tonight."
She died on Sunday at 87 in Oceanside, N.Y. Lynda Wells, a longtime
friend and an executor of her estate, said that the cause was
complications after intestinal surgery.
Ms. Darian was a session singer and stage performer when she was asked
by the producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore and the songwriter
George David Weiss to provide backing vocals for "The Lion Sleeps
Tonight," which Mr. Weiss had adapted from a South African song.
Her soaring, high-pitched vocal provided a counterpoint to the lead
vocals and the harmonized lower-register "wimowehs," and the record
spent three weeks atop the Billboard pop chart.
She also sang behind Mickey & Sylvia on their 1957 hit "Love Is
Strange" and recorded with Burt Bacharach, Dinah Washington, Patti
Page and others, usually without credit and often emulating the eerie
sound of a theremin.
Her talents were more frequently acknowledged onstage. She made her
Carnegie Hall debut performing Mark Buzzi's "Concerto for Kazoo and
Orchestra" as part of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's Young
People's Concerts program. (The concert was broadcast on CBS.)
A City Center regular, Ms. Darian performed Natalie in Strauss's "Die
Fledermaus" and Pitti-Sing in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado"
there in 1959, and played Julie in "Show Boat" in 1961. She also
played Lady Thiang in several different City Center productions of
Rodgers & Hammerstein's "The King and I."
"As the King's head wife, Anita Darian sings 'Something Wonderful'
with a patience, belief and clarity that are wonderful in their own
right," the New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in a review of
a 1960 City Center production that starred Farley Granger and Barbara
Cook.
She was born Anita Margaret Esgandarian in Detroit on April 26, 1927,
to Anna and Garo Esgandarian, Armenian immigrants. She shortened her
name when she went into show business. She graduated from Cooley High
School in Detroit and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia
and later studied at the Juilliard School.
Ms. Darian lived in East Atlantic Beach on Long Island. Varham
Fantazian, a cousin and co-executor of her estate, said that no
immediate family members survive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/arts/music/anita-darian-a-singer-with-an-eclectic-range-dies-at-87.html?_r=0