Jean Duncan, right, poses with Margarett Ann Pent, artistic advisor of the Wichita Grand Opera.
Jean Duncan has been singing most of her life, performing as a church soloist and giving recitals. She had even studied with a voice teacher in Heidelberg, Germany. But one thing she had never studied was opera.
That all changed in the early 2000s, when Jean was encouraged to try out for the fledgling Wichita Grand Opera.
“I wondered, what would I do? I had to have an aria,” Jean said. But she did well enough to be chosen by WGO founder Margaret Ann Pent for the first company of 26 performers.
After that, Jean performed with the opera for eight years. “It was night and day, all kinds of rehearsals,” she said. “It really was wonderful.”
Jean said she seemed to play a nun more often than anything else, which struck her funny, because she is married to a minister.
Jean was born in Canada, and her family moved to Oregon when she was 12. That’s where she met her husband, Bob. The couple moved to Germany early in their marriage for Bob’s studies, and Jean was able to study music there as well. Later, Bob came to pastor churches in the Topeka area. When their daughter in Wichita started a family, they moved here to be near their grandchildren.
In Wichita, Jean taught special education students in Goddard. She later joined a community choir affiliated with Friends University. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the choir was invited to perform Handel’s “Messiah” together with other groups at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
“When we were through singing, people came from the audience and hugged us and thanked us for coming, and it was really overwhelming,” she said.
In August, the Duncans planned to see the opera’s production of Puccini’s “Turandot” together for their 65th anniversary. Unfortunately Bob became ill and could not attend, but Jean had invited other Wichita Presbyterian Manor residents to go. She even got to greet her old friend Margaret Ann Pent, now WGO’s artistic director.
“It was a privilege to be at the opera this time,” Jean said. “We wanted to see the opera ourselves, and that’s why I thought maybe other people would like to go.”
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