Tom's Life Bits

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJUNE 3, 2015, 3:53 P.M. E.D.T.
. NEW YORK — Margaret Juntwait, an American radio broadcaster whose mellifluous voice reached more than 8 million fans worldwide in live Saturday broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera stage, died Wednesday. She was 58.

Juntwait died in New York City after a decade-long battle with ovarian cancer, said Met spokesman Sam Neuman.

Until Dec. 31, her last broadcast, her home studio was nestled behind the Met's Family Circle seats under the golden ceiling, in a space the size of an average walk-in closet. A large monitor beamed in the stage action, replaced during intermission by patrons' chatter and the clanging of glasses in the nearby bar.

Since 2004, Juntwait was the familiar voice of more than 200 broadcasts heard on New York's WQXR-FM — among 570 stations in the United States plus others in 39 countries. She also hosted about 900 live broadcasts on the Met's Sirius XM channel, heard three or four times a week during the opera season. In previous years, she worked at New York's classical radio station WNYC-FM.

“Margaret Juntwait was the soul of the Met's radio broadcasts,” said Met General Manager Peter Gelb. “She will be sorely missed by her loving colleagues here at the Met, as well as the countless opera stars who she so deftly interviewed over the years, and by the millions of devoted fans who listened to her mellifluous hosting of our broadcasts three or four times a week, season after season.”

Before Dec. 31, though diagnosed with ovarian cancer more than a decade ago, she missed only one Saturday matinee broadcast due to her illness.

Listeners will still hear her in Sirius broadcasts. Just a few weeks ago, she was in the Met building at Manhattan's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts to record content for future Sirius XM broadcasts.

The native of Ridgewood, New Jersey, graduated from the Manhattan School of Music as a lyric soprano.

Juntwait is survived by her husband, Jamie Katz; her mother; three sons and a daughter.

JUNE 4, 2015, 12:20 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2015, 1:36 PM
BY JAY LEVIN

A love of choral music developed at Northern Highlands Regional High School carried Margaret Juntwait to widespread fame as the mellifluous radio voice of the Metropolitan Opera.

This August 2011 photo provided by the Metropolitan Opera shows radio broadcaster Margaret Juntwait in her closet-sized radio booth at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. JONATHAN TICHLER/METROPOLITAN OPERA VIA AP

This August 2011 photo provided by the Metropolitan Opera shows radio broadcaster Margaret Juntwait in her closet-sized radio booth at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Ms. Juntwait, who died Wednesday at 58, hosted the Met’s live broadcasts on WQXR-FM and Sirius XM since 2004. Working from a little studio behind the Family Circle seats at the Lincoln Center opera house, she supplemented her play-by-play of the greatest operatic performances with interviews with the greatest operatic stars, Placido Domingo and Marilyn Horne among them.

The Met’s third radio host dating to 1931, Ms. Juntwait told The Record in 2008 that she prepped for her announcing duties in an unconventional manner.

“I listen to Yankee games on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman,” she said. “I’m constantly getting ideas from them. Of course, not about content, but about what’s important to a listener.”

Ms. Juntwait, who grew up in Ridgewood and Upper Saddle River, died of ovarian cancer, the Metropolitan Opera said.

Her first Saturday matinee broadcast was a Dec. 11, 2004, performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “I Vespri Siciliani.” Her final broadcast was a Dec. 31, 2014, performance of Franz Lehár’s. “The Merry Widow.”

“Margaret Juntwait was the soul of the Met’s radio broadcasts,” the Met’s general manager, Peter Gelb, said in a statement. “She will be sorely missed by her loving colleagues here at the Met, as well as the countless opera stars who she so deftly interviewed over the years, and by the millions of devoted fans who listened to her mellifluous hosting of our broadcasts three or four times a week, season after season.”

Ms. Juntwait graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1980. She took jobs singing church music and in 1991 landed as a classical music host on WNYC-FM.

When she succeeded Peter Allen as the opera’s radio host — he had the job since 1975 — a Record editorial hailed the announcement as having “the impact of a star emerging from a limousine on opening night of a blockbuster in Hollywood.”

In 2011, Ms. Juntwait was inducted into the inaugural class of the Northern Highlands Regional Hall of Fame. Another honoree was James Comey, now director of the FBI. Ms. Juntwait attended the ceremony with her old music teacher, Buddy Ajalat, as her guest.

At the Allendale school, Ms. Juntwait sang in the concert choir, madrigal group and girls’ quartet and performed on stage in “The Matchmaker” — she was Dolly Levi — “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.” She graduated in 1975.

Ajalat, who retired in 1994 as Northern Highlands Regional High School’s music supervisor, directed Ms. Juntwait in many of her extracurricular activities. “She was a standout — warm, friendly and darling, and everyone loved her,” Ajalat said.

“Margaret had a wonderful singing voice but will probably be remembered for her speaking voice, which was a wonderful instrument in itself,” he said. Asked to describe the speaking voice that was so familiar to opera fans, Ajalat said: “Dark and rich.”

Ms. Juntwait, of New York City, is survived by her husband, Jamie Katz; her mother, Florence Grace; sons Greg, Bart and Steve Andreacchi; stepdaughter Joanna Katz; eight siblings and two grandchildren.

The funeral will be at 11:15 a.m. Saturday at Church of the Presentation, Upper Saddle River.