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Jane Manning: always amenable and a friend to composers whatever their demands Credit: Magnus-Lewinska, Mayotte/ Bridgeman Images Jane Manning, who has died aged 82, was the go-to British soprano for contemporary music and an indispensable friend to many modern composers, giving the first performances of more than 350 works by the likes of Richard Rodney Bennett, Harrison Birtwistle and her husband Anthony Payne. The critic Edward Greenfield wrote in awe of how she was able to defy the laws of musical gravity when tackling avant-garde music’s craggy altitudes. Where many singers would be fearful of damaging their voices, she was willing to try anything, with new challenges and variety bringing out the best in her.