Judith Beatrice Layng

Judith Beatrice Clave Layng

Judith Beatrice Clave Layng was born March 11, 1933, in Aberdeen, South Dakota, the daughter of Hazel and James E. Clave.

As a child, she was gifted in music and art, singing in local programs, directing neighborhood theater productions and painting charming scenes to decorate the walls of the local public library. She married Tony Layng in 1957, and they had one daughter, Kristin. They later divorced.

After graduating from Webster City High School, Iowa, in 1951, and Colorado College in 1955, she went to New York City to study art and quickly changed her focus to theater and opera. She performed off Broadway and in summer stock, then went on to pursue graduate studies in opera stage direction at the Indiana University School of Music and the University of Chicago. For several years, she staged operas as assistant director for the Metropolitan Opera National Company and guest director for various opera companies around the country. She was one of the first nationally recognized women opera stage directors, and was known for her emphasis on realistic acting and her preference for performances in English.

She was also a professor of music and opera, teaching at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, Hiram College in Ohio, and finally, serving as Director of Opera at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music in Ohio for 17 years, retiring in 1996. She loved working with young singers, and brought opera workshops and productions to many children and students across the United States and abroad. Many of the leading opera singers currently performing were her students.

As a scholar, she conducted extensive original research in Austria, Sweden, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., on a variety of topics, including 18th Century opera and early American music, and translated operas, hymns and poetry into English from several languages. She composed opera and vocal music.

The recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation and Oberlin College, she was co-editor for "The Disappointment," America's first comic opera, which was performed at the Library of Congress during the Bicentennial celebration in 1976. She translated several operas for performance, including Wolf-Ferrari's "Il Campiello" and Debussy's "Pelleas and Melisande," and collaborated with conductor Robert Spano on a new version of "The Beggar's Opera".

In addition to her professional achievements, Judith was passionate about issues of social justice. She explored contemporary issues through her interpretations of operas and through her own engagement in the community. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement, which brought her to Tougaloo, Mississippi, from 1965 until 1969. She later traveled to China as an English teacher and to Nicaragua with Habitat for Humanity. For several years after her retirement, she worked in Washington, D.C., with the United Church of Christ and Bread for the World to promote legislation to alleviate global poverty and hunger.

After moving to Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2006 to be closer to her daughter's family, she got involved as a precinct co-chair for the Democratic Party in the Recreation Precinct, and was very active in the Presidential campaign of Barack Obama. She was delighted to appear onstage with Michelle Obama in Charlottesville in the fall of 2008. She was also active with the Ash Lawn Opera Festival.

Judith was predeceased by her father, James E. Clave; and her brother, James L. Clave.

She is survived by her mother, Hazel Clave, 105, of Webster City, Iowa; daughter, Kristin Layng Szakos and her husband, Joe, of Charlottesville; granddaughters, Anna and Maria of Charlottesville; nieces, Lisa McNary of Denver and Melissa Clave Brul‚ of Vancouver, Canada; nephew, Scott McNary of Broomfield, Colorado; and eight great-nieces and nephews, as well as many wonderful and devoted friends.

A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, January 2, 2009, at the Cleveland Park Congregational United Church of Christ, 3400 Lowell Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20016, where she was a member. A later service will be scheduled in Charlottesville on March 11, 2010.

Those who feel moved to make a contribution in her memory are asked to consider Bread for the World, 50 F Street, N.W., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20001 or the Virginia Consort, 1658 Brandywine Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22901.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.