Barbara Cook

Barbara Cook
Cook at the 2009 premiere of the Metropolitan Opera
Background information
Born	(1927-10-25) October 25, 1927 (age 89)
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Musical theatre, traditional pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, actress
Years active	1951–present
Labels	Urania (1958–1959) Columbia (1975–1977) Moss Music Group (1981-1988) DRG (1993–present)
Website	Official website

Barbara Cook (born October 25, 1927) is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Plain and Fancy (1955), Candide (1956) and The Music Man (1957) among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter. She continued performing mostly in theatre until the mid-1970s, when she began a second career that continues to this day as a cabaret and concert singer. She has also made numerous recordings.

During her years as Broadway’s leading Cook was lauded for her excellent lyric soprano voice. She was particularly admired for her vocal agility, wide range, warm sound, and emotive interpretations. As she has aged her voice has taken on a darker quality, even in her head voice, that was less prominent in her youth. Today Cook is widely recognized as one of the "premier interpreters" of musical theatre songs and standards, in particular the songs of composer Stephen Sondheim. Her subtle and sensitive interpretations of American popular song continue to earn high praise even into her eighties. She was named an honoree at the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors.

Cook was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of Nell (née Harwell) and Charles Bunyan. Her father was a traveling hat salesman and her mother was an operator for Southern Bell. Her parents divorced when she was a child and, after her only sister died of whooping cough, Barbara lived alone with her mother. She later described their relationship as "so close, too close. I slept with my mother until I came to New York. Slept in the same bed with her. That's just, it's wrong. But to me, it was the norm....As far as she was concerned, we were one person." Though Barbara began singing at an early age, at the Elks Club and to her father over the phone, she spent three years after graduating from high school working as a typist.