Custer LaRue is a

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

vocalist of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She specializes in Renaissance music and traditional

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

such as the

Child ballads The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...

and music collected in Appalachia during the early 20th century.

Biography

LaRue is from Bath County, Virginia, and attended

Mary Baldwin College Mary Baldwin University (MBU, formerly Mary Baldwin College) is a private university in Staunton, Virginia. It was founded in 1842 as Augusta Female Seminary. Today, Mary Baldwin University is home to the Mary Baldwin College for Women, a resid ...

and the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869), ...

, where she received a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of pre ...

degree in 1979. She served as the lead singer for

The Baltimore Consort The Baltimore Consort is a musical ensemble that performs a wide variety of early music, Renaissance music and music from later periods. They began in 1980 as a group specializing in music of the Elizabethan period, but soon expanded their repert ...

between 1983 and 2004, and has also worked as a solo artist with ad hoc groups of supporting musicians, with recordings released on the Dorian label. In the movie ''Hunters Moon'' (1997) LaRue sings "Soldier Boy", a folk song, slightly changed, from the southern Appalachians. In the 2004 film '' Vanity Fair'', LaRue's singing was used to voice-over

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, she ...

's three songs "Over The Mountains/The Great Adventurer", "Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal", and "The Mermaids Song". In 2009, she was recognized with the Peabody Alumni Achievement Award Recognizing Outstanding Contributions to Music in Maryland.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American sopranos People from Bath County, Virginia Mary Baldwin University alumni Place of birth missing (living people) Peabody Institute alumni Singers from Virginia 21st-century American women {{US-folk-singer-stub