Lili Chookasian (August 1, 1921April 9, 2012) was an American contralto of Armenian ethnicity, who appeared with many of the world's major symphony orchestras and opera houses. She began her career in the 1940s as a concert singer but did not draw wider acclaim until she began singing opera in her late thirties. She arose as one of the world's leading contraltos during the 1960s and 1970s, and notably had a long and celebrated career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1962 through 1986. She was admired for her sonorous, focused tone as well as her excellent musicianship. She often chose, against tradition, to sing oratorios from memory.
Early life and concert career: 1921–1958
Chookasian was born in Chicago, the youngest of three children to immigrants from Armenia. Her family had immigrated to the United States shortly after the Armenian genocide of 1915 which claimed the lives of two of Chookasian's grandparents and several members of her extended family. Chookasian's first language was Armenian, as her parents spoke that language in the home. She only became proficient speaking English through attending school as a child.
Chookasian first became involved with music through singing at local churches and in musical programs at her high school, notably appearing as Buttercup in her school's production of H.M.S. Pinafore. After high school she began studying singing seriously with Philip Manuel and Gavin Williamson, both with whom she took lessons for almost twenty years. In her late teens she started earning money singing for churches and on the radio. In 1941, at the age of twenty, she married George Gavejian who was a friend of her older brother. They had a very happy marriage that lasted for forty-six years, ending when Gavejian died in 1987. They had several children and eleven grandchildren together.
In the midst of Chookasian's breakout 1961 season she discovered another lump in her other breast. She told no one, fulfilled her commitments in New York, Baltimore, and Europe, and then finally sought a doctor's care in November 1961 after finishing up performance of Aida. She went through another mastectomy, after which her prognosis was good; the cancer had not spread, and she recovered quickly.
During her career at the Met, Chookasian sang with many great singers like Carlo Bergonzi, Richard Cassilly, Franco Corelli, Phyllis Curtin, Mattiwilda Dobbs, William Dooley, Plácido Domingo, Reri Grist, Anna Moffo, Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, Gail Robinson, Leonie Rysanek, Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, and Richard Tucker among others. In 1984, during a performance of Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, she suffered a minor heart attack on stage and was unable to continue the performance. After this her performance career slowed down somewhat and her last performance at the Met was on February 17, 1986 as Gertrude in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette with Neil Shicoff as Roméo and Catherine Malfitano as Juliette. Her 290th performance with the company, was also her farewell to the opera stage.
She died at her home in Branford at the age of 90 in 2012.