American soprano (born 1960)
Dawn Upshaw
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Born
| (
1960-07-17
)
July 17, 1960
(age 63)
Nashville, Tennessee
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Genres
| Classical
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Instrument(s)
| Vocals
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Years active
| 1984?present
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Musical artist
Dawn Upshaw
(born July 17, 1960) is an American
soprano
. She is the recipient of several
Grammy Awards
and has released a number of
Edison Award
-winning discs; she performs both
opera
and
art song
, and her repertoire spans
Baroque
to
contemporary
. Many composers, including
Henri Dutilleux
,
Osvaldo Golijov
,
John Harbison
,
Esa-Pekka Salonen
,
John Adams
, and
Kaija Saariaho
, have written for her. In 2007, she was awarded a
MacArthur Fellowship
.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Dawn Upshaw was born in
Nashville, Tennessee
. She began singing while attending
Rich East High School
in
Park Forest, Illinois
and was the only female ever promoted to the top choir (the Singing Rockets) as a sophomore, according to choir director Douglas Ulreich. She received a B.A. in 1982 from
Illinois Wesleyan University
, where she studied voice with Dr. David Nott. She went on to study voice with
Ellen Faull
at the
Manhattan School of Music
in
New York City
, earning her M.M. in 1984. She also attended courses given by
Jan DeGaetani
at the
Aspen Music School
. She was a winner of the
Young Concert Artists International Auditions
(1984) and the
Walter M. Naumburg Competition
(1985), and was a member of the
Metropolitan Opera
Young Artists Development Program. Since her start in 1984, Upshaw has made more than 300 appearances at the
Metropolitan Opera
.
Career
[
edit
]
Upshaw came to international fame with her performance on the million-selling recording (1992), with
David Zinman
, of
Symphony No 3
by
Henryk Gorecki
, known as the
Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
(
Symfonia pie?ni ?ałosnych
).
She has premiered more than twenty-five new works, notably
Henri Dutilleux
's song-cycle
Correspondances
, and has embraced several pieces created for her, including the
Grawemeyer Award
-winning opera
L'Amour de Loin
by
Kaija Saariaho
,
The Great Gatsby
by
John Harbison
, the nativity
oratorio
El Nino
by
John Adams
, and
Osvaldo Golijov's
highly acclaimed
chamber opera
Ainadamar
and
song cycle
Ayre
. In 2009, she premiered
David Bruce's
song cycle
The North Wind was a Woman
at the gala opening of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre's season.
In addition to her operatic recordings, she has also sung the title role in the first complete recording of the score of
Gershwin
's
Oh, Kay!
.
[2]
She has also recorded albums of songs by
Vernon Duke
and
Rodgers and Hart
.
[3]
Upshaw was a guest of
President of the United States
Bill Clinton
and Mrs. Clinton on the
NBC
special
Christmas in Washington
. The
BBC
presented a prime-time telecast of her 1996 London
Proms Concert
,
Dawn at Dusk
, in which she performed songs from American
musical theater
. Her engagements with
James Levine
over many years led to a 1997 recording of
Claude Debussy
songs.
Upshaw appears on an album of Christmas music in association with the male vocal ensemble
Chanticleer
titled
Christmas with Chanticleer featuring special guest Dawn Upshaw
for Teldec Classics.
[4]
Upshaw tours regularly with pianist
Gilbert Kalish
.
Richard Goode
and Margo Garrett are also long-standing partners. She has worked with director
Peter Sellars
many times, including on his staging of
Handel
's
Theodora
at
Glyndebourne
, his
Paris
production of
Stravinsky
's
The Rake's Progress
?as part of the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
and
Esa-Pekka Salonen
's month-long residency at the
Theatre du Chatelet
, 1996?a staging of Bach's cantata
Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut
, BWV 199
, presented in the 1995?96 season at New York's
92nd Street Y
, and the
Salzburg Festival
production of
Olivier Messiaen
's
Saint Francois d'Assise
(1998). Upshaw has often performed as a soloist at the annual
Ojai Music Festival
in California; most recently in 2006, 2008, and 2009. In 2011, she was the music director of the festival, where she performed the world premiere of the Peter Sellers-staged production of
George Crumb
's work
Winds of Destiny
. She joined the
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
as artistic partner beginning with the 2007?08 season, and she is artistic director of the Graduate Program in Vocal Arts at the
Bard College Conservatory of Music
, which accepted its first students in the 2006?07 academic year. She also is a faculty member at the
Tanglewood Music Center
.
Upshaw holds
honorary
doctorates of arts
from
Yale University
, the
Manhattan School of Music
,
Illinois Wesleyan University
, and
Allegheny College
. She is an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University from 2020 to 2026.
[5]
Personal life
[
edit
]
Upshaw is a divorced mother of two. She lives near New York City.
[6]
She was diagnosed with and treated for early-stage breast cancer in 2006.
[7]
Awards and recognition
[
edit
]
1989 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist
1991 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist
2003 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance
2006 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording
2007
MacArthur Fellowship
[1]
2014 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist
Selected discography
[
edit
]
- 1990:
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
:
Te deum
H.146,
Magnificat
H.74,
Kurt Moll
, bass,
John Aler
, tenor, Dawn Upshaw, soprano, Ethna Robinson, contralto,
Ann Muray
, soprano and contralto, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by
Neville Marriner
. CD EMI classics, 1991
- 1991: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Le Nozze di Figaro
, conducted by James Levine, Deutsche Grammophon, 435 488-2
- 1992:
Jules Massenet:
Cherubin
, conducted by Pinchas Steinberg, RCA Victor Red Seal CD, 09026-60593-2
- 1992:
Henryk Gorecki
:
Symphony No. 3
,
Nonesuch
/Elektra Records CD, 79282
- 2005:
James Levine's 25th Anniversary Metropolitan Opera Gala
(1996), Deutsche Grammophon DVD, B0004602-09
- 2005:
Ayre (Golijov)
, Deutsche Grammophon CD, 00289 477 5414
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
MacArthur Foundation
- ^
Oh, Kay!
restored by Tommy Krasker, starring Dawn Upshaw and Kurt Ollmann, Roxbury Recordings (Nonesuch 1995)
- ^
Dawn Upshaw sings Rodgers & Hart
, recorded NYC June 1995, (Nonesuch 1996)
- ^
"Christmas with Chanticleer"
.
Chanticleer
. Archived from
the original
on June 8, 2019
. Retrieved
June 8,
2019
.
- ^
"
"Dawn Upshaw"
"
.
Program for Andrew D. White Professors-at-Large, Cornell University
. September 21, 2020.
Archived
from the original on February 25, 2021
. Retrieved
June 24,
2021
.
- ^
pressrelease
[
dead link
]
- ^
"Upshaw"
. Archived from
the original
on February 12, 2012
. Retrieved
March 30,
2015
.
External links
[
edit
]
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