Free Louisville Concert Tells the Story of Winnaretta Singer, a Forgotten Lesbian Arts Patron

November 15, 2026/in Culture/by Damien Pine

Winnaretta Singer was an American lesbian princess who was responsible for funding some of the most influential musicians of the early-to-mid 1900s. Yet despite her influence, her memory has faded with time.

To tell Singer’s story, Kentucky Opera has partnered with the University of Louisville’s School of Music to present a free interdisciplinary concert, “The Unsung Singer”, on Tuesday, November 17th at 7 p.m. at the university’s Malcolm Berg Recital Hall. The concert features an exciting, eclectic selection of music. Singer had a connection intertwined with a narrative about her colorful life.

Who was Winnaretta Singer?

Born on January 8th, 1865, Winnaretta Singer was one of 24 heirs to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. She used her inheritance to pursue her dream of moving to Europe to start a salon, inviting some of the world’s most renowned artists to live in her home and create new works that she commissioned. However, at the time only married people with aristocratic titles could start salons, so being an American lesbian was a significant barrier. To overcome it, Winnaretta had a lavender marriage in 1893 with a gay penniless French prince, Prince Edmond de Polignac, becoming close friends.

“She ended up becoming one of the most influential commissioners of new artwork in the early 20th century,” according to Ben Robinson, the general director and CEO at Kentucky Opera. “She was really an incredible person who touched so many lives, and yet her story is largely untold.”

Singer commissioned Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Satie, and many other influential musicians that shaped the evolution of classical music during the late 1800s and early-to-mid 1900s. She was also a musician and painter herself, and helped develop public housing in Paris in the early 1900s. Later, she worked with Marie Curie converting limousines into radiology units to help soldiers during World War I.

“So many of the cycles of her life and loves were influenced by the women that she found herself either in relationships with or pining after,” Robinson adds. “In many ways, she was a queer icon, but she also was just herself and wasn’t defined by any one of these particular things.”

About the program

Suzanne DuPlantis, a mezzo-soprano, and Laura Ward, a pianist, are the artistic directors of Lyric Fest, a unique concert series based in Philadelphia that commissions and performs new works in concerts across the United States, mostly on the East Coast. Together, they developed “The Unsung Singer”, a concert program inspired by Music’s Modern Muse, A Life of Winnaretta Singer, Princesse de Polignac by Sylvia Kahan, combining “some of just the best song literature that’s ever been written with this fascinating story,” Robinson adds.

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It’s only the fourth time this concert has been performed, this time with Kentucky Opera partnering with the University of Louisville’s School of Music. The concert will be performed by the school’s voice students, including one of the Kentucky Opera’s apprentice artists.

“This is a program that kind of lives in the liminal zone between opera and concert and what we traditionally do versus what is very outside of the box for us,” Robinson says, explaining that the concert is part of Songweek, a group of three upcoming concerts that each tell the story of a different woman who can no longer speak for herself. They’re also meant to show how flexible classical singing can be and center stories that better represent the Louisville community.

The concert program also includes “A Voice: Mrs. Ada Doss Campbell” on Thursday, November 19, a free concert telling the story of a Black woman who was murdered in a Kentucky state asylum in 1940, and “Cotton: The Soft Dangerous Beauty of Our Past” on November 20 and 21, a combination of imagery and song using cotton as a metaphor for the Black experience in the United States, revealing how slavery built many of the institutions people now take for granted.

How to attend

University of Louisville’s voice students will perform “The Unsung Singer” on Tuesday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the University of Louisville’s Malcolm Berg Recital Hal. The concert is roughly an hour and 15 minutes long, and admission is free.

“Just show up,” Robinson says, although you can also register at Kentucky Opera’s website.