Joining a rare natural warmth with a fierce commitment to the transforming communicative power of music, Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity as a singer of opera and concert repertoire ranging form the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. Her ability to reach to the heart of music and text has earned her both the devotion of an exceptionally diverse audience, and the awards and distinctions accorded to only the most distinguished of artists.
Her acclaimed performances on the opera stage comprise the great Mozart roles (Pamina, Ilia, Susanna, Despina) as well as modern works by Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Messiaen. From Salzburg, Paris and Glyndebourne to the Metropolitan Opera, where she began her career in 1984 and has since made nearly 300 appearances, Dawn Upshaw has also championed numerous new works created for her including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison; the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera, L'Amour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams's nativity oratorio El Nino; and Osvaldo Golijov's chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre, both newly-recorded on Deutsche Grammophon.
Ms. Upshaw reprised her celebrated Santa Fe Opera portrayal of Margarita Xirgu in Ainadamar at the Ojai and Ravinia festivals, followed by performances of Lukas Foss's Time Cycle with the San Francisco Symphony and Henri Dutilleux's Correspondances with the Philadelphia Orchestra that began the 2006-07 concert year. Other season highlights include a European tour of Golijov's Ayre; a US recital tour with pianist Gilbert Kalish; and orchestral performances with David Robertson and the St. Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall; and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall. Ms. Upshaw is an Artistic Partner of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, with whom she is performing and curating an innovative vocal series beginning this fall.
It says much about Dawn Upshaw's sensibilities as an artist and colleague that she is a favored partner of many leading musicians, including Richard Goode, the Kronos Quartet, James Levine, Sir Simon Rattle, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In her work as a recitalist, and particularly in her work with composers, Dawn Upshaw has become a generative force in concert music, having premiered more than 25 works in the past decade. From Carnegie Hall to large and small venues throughout the world she regularly presents specially designed programs composed of lieder, unusual contemporary works in many languages, and folk and popular music. She furthers this work in master classes and workshops with young singers at major music festivals, conservatories, and liberal arts colleges. She is a member of the faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center, and is Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music.
A three-time Grammy Award winner, Dawn Upshaw is featured on more than 50 recordings, including the million-selling Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Gorecki. Her discography also includes full-length opera recordings of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro; Messiaen's St. Francoise d'Assise; Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress; John Adams's El Nino; two volumes of Canteloube's “Songs of the Auvergne”, and a dozen recital recordings. Upshaw has also recorded several beloved Nonesuch discs of music theater repertoire, which she has offered with the Chicago Symphony and the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, as well as at London's Proms Festival and on radio and television. She was the subject of a one-hour profile on Bravo, “Intimate Collaborations”, and has been featured on numerous PBS and NPR programs.
Dawn Upshaw holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale University, the Manhattan School of Music, Allegheny College, and Illinois Wesleyan University. She began her career as a winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions and the Walter W. Naumburg Competition, and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program.
Dawn Upshaw will be performing "Ainadamar” May 23-24, 2008.