Must Watch: Barbara Cook Teaches Students the Art of the Song in Master Class

As BroadwayWorld sadly reported this morning, Barbara Cook has passed away at 89. This is an enormous loss for Broadway, the golden age of television and the music world.

Last year, Barbara Cook's anticipated autobiography, Barbara Cook: THEN AND NOW, was released by HarperCollins Publishers. Cook's companion off-Broadway production of the same name -- originally slated to run at New World Stages -- was postponed due to the "undue pressure and stress" of going straight from writing the memoir to rehearsals and this year the star's son announced her retirement.

Barbara Cook's silvery soprano, purity of tone, and warm presence have delighted audiences around the world for more than 50 years. Considered "Broadway's favorite ingenue" during the heyday of the Broadway musical, Miss Cook then launched a second career as a concert and recording artist soaring from one professional peak to another. Whether on the stages of major international venues or in the intimate setting of New York's famed Café Carlyle, Barbara Cook's popularity continues to thrive - as evidenced by a succession of seven triumphant returns toCarnegie Hall (most recently her celebratory 85th Birthday concert) where she made her legendary solo concert debut in 1975, and an ever-growing mantle of honors including the Tony, Grammy, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, her citation as a Living New York Landmark and her induction into the Theatre Hall of Fame. The recipient of the 2011 Kennedy Center Honor, in 2010 Miss Cook returned to the Broadway stage after a 23-year absence, and was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance, in the musical Sondheim on Sondheim, directed by James Lapine.

Cook gave a master class at the Library for the Performing Arts on February 21, 2006. watch as she shares her priceless expertise with students from to students from the Manhattan School of Music and NYU/Steinhardt School.