Barbara Bonney was born on 14 April 1956 in Montclair, New Jersey. She studied German and music at the University of New Hampshire, spending a formative junior year in Salzburg where she switched from cello to voice and trained at the Mozarteum. Her professional debut came in 1979 at the Staatstheater Darmstadt as Anna in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

A leading lyric soprano especially associated with Mozart and Richard Strauss, Bonney performed at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala, and the Vienna State Opera, and built an acclaimed parallel career as a recitalist with more than 90 recordings including 15 solo albums. She later became a University Professor of Singing at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Bonney