Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Her 88th Birthday


Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the diminutive Supreme Court justice with a towering legacy, would have been 88 years old Monday.

She died last fall of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer.

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To commemorate her life and legacy, her son, Jim Ginsburg, a Chicagoan and founder of the classical music label Cedille Records,  and daughter-in-law, Patrice Michaels, an opera singer and composer and lecturer at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, launched a tribute video that features Michaels

There’s also an album available on Cedille Records honoring RBG called “Notorious RBG in Song” which includes the nine operatic pieces commissioned by her children called, “The Long View: A Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Nine Songs.”

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg with members of her family at Cedille Records. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg with members of her family at Cedille Records. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her son, Jim Ginsburg. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her son, Jim Ginsburg. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her granddaughters. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg with her granddaughters. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

  • Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her son, Jim Ginsburg. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her son, Jim Ginsburg. (Courtesy of Jim Ginsburg)

On the Cedille website, Jim Ginsburg writes, “My sister Jane and I commissioned three women composers to write songs for Mom’s 80th birthday in 2013: Stacy Garrop, Vivian Fung, and Patrice Michaels (all three of which appear on the album). Patrice’s song for the occasion, ‘Anita’s Story,’ was based on a tribute letter written for Mom’s 50th birthday and led to Patrice later writing her full song cycle, The Long View: A Portrait of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Nine Songs, that is the centerpiece of the album.”


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