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Arthur and Ena Grist Scholarship Fund
Born and raised in New York City, Reri Grist danced and acted in Broadway plays and musicals. She appeared
in the original cast of West Side Story and so impressed Leonard Bernstein that he engaged her to
sing with the New York Philharmonic. After her sensational debut with the Zurich Opera in 1960, the soprano
sprang to international fame virtually overnight. Grist has since appeared on all of the major operatic
stages in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Vienna State Opera, and the
Salzburger Festspiele. Although she has made her permanent home in Europe since 1960, she was a member of the
Indiana University faculty as a professor of voice from 1981-1983. Upon her return to Europe in 1984, Grist
accepted a professorship at the Hochschule für Musik, Munich, while maintaining close contact with the IU
School of Music. She established this scholarship in 1983 as a means of acknowledging her parents'
encouragement and support for her career. "My parents exposed me to music and the stage at an early age," she
said. "My mother would take me to the neighborhood dancing school and my father would take me to Broadway
auditions." Numerous friends and colleagues of Reri Grist have also contributed to this fund.
The Arthur and Ena Grist Scholarship alternates annually between singers, keyboard players, and
instrumentalists. It is limited to citizens of African American, Hispanic, or Native American origin.
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