Classical Singer. A contralto, she performed much of the principal oratorio repertoire with the leading conductors of her day. Raised in New York City, she launched her professional career in 1941 after auditioning for famed conductor Robert Shaw who was to make her one of of his lead soloists when he formed his famed eponymous Chorale in 1948. She made an acclaimed debut at New York's Town Hall on May 25, 1954, and was to become a frequent guest of such noted conductors as Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, Charles Munch, Fritz Reiner, and Maurice Abravanel. With Shaw, Miss Kopleff was to share in two Grammy Awards, in 1962 for a much praised reading of J.S. Bach's "Mass in B-Minor" and in 1967 for Handel's Christmas and Easter staple "Messiah". Though she never performed staged opera she often appeared with the American Opera Society in concert versions of such pieces as Benjamin Britten's "Rejoice in the Lamb" and Hector Berlioz' "L'Enfance du Christ". When Maestro Shaw took over the Atlanta Symphony in 1977 he brought her to the group the next year as principal alto and was to see her installed as professor at Georgia State University. There, Miss Kopleff trained two generations of artists many of whom went on to distinguished careers of their own and was to only gradually withdraw from the recital stage. Retring to Professor Emeria status in 1998 she was to see Georgia State's recital Hall named in her honor in 2004. At her death in a hospice facility from the complications of long standing diabetes much of her recorded legcy remained available including her work with Shaw as well as Fritz Reiner's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Charles Munch's Mahler's Second Sumphony, "The Resurrection".