Janet Fairbank was an American operatic singer.

She was the daughter of novelist and suffragette Janet Ayer Fairbank

Janet Ayer Fairbank

Janet Ayer Fairbank was an American author and suffragette, socially and politically active in Chicago and a champion of progressive causes. She attended the University of Chicago and in 1900 married the lawyer Kellogg Fairbank, the son of industrialist N. K. Fairbank...

 and Kellogg Fairbank, the son of industrialist N. K. Fairbank

N. K. Fairbank

Nathaniel Kellogg "N.K." Fairbank was a Chicago industrialist whose company, the N.K. Fairbank Co., manufactured soap as well as animal and baking products in conjunction with the great meat packing houses in northern Illinois. The company had factories in Chicago, St. Louis, Montreal and...

; she was also the niece of Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist Margaret Ayer Barnes

Margaret Ayer Barnes

Margaret Ayer Barnes was an American playwright, novelist, and short-story writer....

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A soprano, she made occasional performances with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Chicago Opera, the Grant Park Orchestra, and the San Carlo Opera Company

San Carlo Opera Company

The San Carlo Opera Company was the name of two different opera companies active in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century.-History:...

. She was also a patron of contemporary music, and provided encouragement and support to numerous recognized and aspiring composers including Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson

Virgil Thomson was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music...

, David Diamond

David Diamond

David Diamond is the name of:* David Diamond , American composer* David Diamond * David Diamond , American screenwriter* David Diamond, frontman and songwriter with Canadian band The Kings...

, Francis Poulenc

Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...

, Benjamin Britten

Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

, Lou Harrison

Lou Harrison

Lou Silver Harrison was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison...

, Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

, Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem

Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...

, Gottfried von Einem

Gottfried von Einem

Gottfried von Einem was an Austrian composer. He is known chiefly for his operas influenced by the music of Stravinsky and Prokofiev, as well as by jazz. He also composed pieces for piano, violin and organ.-Biography:...

, and John Cage

John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...

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She died in Chicago in 1947 of malignant leukemia.