Janice Harsanyi was an American operatic soprano and professor who was born as Janice Morris in Arlington, Massachusetts, in 1929. She achieved professional recognition in 1958 after performing as a soloist during the opening ceremonies for the United Nations and is famous for her 1960 recording of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Harsanyi made a debut at Carnegie Hall (1959) performing Hector Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust. Her career included performances of George Frideric Handel’s opera Amadigi (1969) and works by the composers Roger Sessions and John Harbison. She served as the head of the voice department at Westminster Choir College in the early 1950s and joined the faculty of Florida State University in 1978. Harsanyi was associated with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, which was founded by her husband, Nicholas Harsanyi, in 1979. Harsanyi died in Tallahassee in 2007.
