Speaker Information

Music 2012

June LeBell

June LeBell began her radio career in 1973 at WQXR, the nation’s largest and oldest commercial classical music radio station, when she became the first female announcer in this field in the country. At WQXR over 30 years, she received more than 18 major awards for outstanding broadcasts for “IBM’s Salute to the Arts,” and a variety of programs with the New York Philharmonic, Marilyn Horne Foundation, New York City Opera and others. June has written for The NY Times, Ovation, Gourmet and Stagebill, authored a cookbook with illustrations by Al Hirschfeld (“Kitchen Classics from the Philharmonic,” Doubleday), and served on numerous arts boards.

Starting as a professional classical singer, she attended the famous High School of Music and Art, the Mannes College of Music and the Hartt College of Music, and studied with Martial Singher and Adele Addison. She currently lives with her husband, Edward Alley – a retired conductor and music administrator – in Sarasota, where she writes for The Observer, works with Gloria Musicae and continues her rigorous schedule of sold-out “Musical Conversations” locally and, in New York City, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (June will be interviewed for SILL by Robert Sherman.)