Ardoin, John, 1935-2001

John Louis Ardoin was born on January 8, 1935 in Alexandria, Louisiana, to Louis and Ruth Herren Ardoin, and his family moved to Port Arthur, Texas, when he was three years old. Radio programs cultivated his early interest in opera, and he initially enrolled at what is now the University of North Texas before transferring to the University of Texas at Austin. Ardoin earned a Bachelor of Arts in music theory from UT Austin, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma, and did postgraduate work at Michigan State University. Army service in Stuttgart provided him with opportunities to see live performances of top European opera artists, including soprana Martha Mödl. Ardoin lived and worked in New York City for seven years after completing his military service. According to the Handbook of Texas Online, "He was editor of Musical America magazine, managing editor of the program books for Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center, a writer for the Saturday Review of Literature, as well as New York critic for The Times of London and Opera." He returned to Texas in 1966 to become the music critic at the Dallas Morning News, succeeding John Rosenfield. He also formed a friendship with Maria Callas, and authored multiple books on her life and work, later authoring additional works on conductors Wilhelm Furtwängler and Valery Gergiev. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of North Texas in 1987. He retired from the Dallas Morning News in 1998, and relocated to Costa Rica. Ardoin died on March 18, 2001, in San José, Costa Rica.