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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 from 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. In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Ms. Upshaw’s 2012-13 season features an array of performances in many areas of the repertoire that she has championed. With the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where she is an Artistic Partner, Ms. Upshaw reprises jazz composer Maria Schneider’s "Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories." She recreates the role of Simone Weil in "La Passion de Simone" with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Finnish Radio, appears with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius’s "Luonnotar," under the baton of Thomas Adès, and sings music of Debussy with the London Symphony, conducted by John Adams. A dedicated recitalist, she appears with pianist Stephen Prutsman at the University of Texas at Austin, and embarks on a tour of Hawaii with longtime collaborator Gilbert Kalish. She also performs with The Knights Chamber Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, and with the Crash Ensemble at the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall in music written for her by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy.

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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 from 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.  In 2007, she was named a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation, the first vocal artist to be awarded the five-year “genius” prize, and in 2008 she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

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 and oratorio La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams’s Nativity oratorio El Niño; and Osvaldo Golijov’s chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre.

Ms. Upshaw’s 2012-13 season features an array of performances in many areas of the repertoire that she has championed. With the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, where she is an Artistic Partner, Ms. Upshaw reprises jazz composer Maria Schneider’s Carlos Drummond de Andrade Stories. She recreates the role of Simone Weil in La Passion de Simone with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Finnish Radio, appears with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Sibelius’s Luonnotar, under the baton of Thomas Adès, and sings music of Debussy with the London Symphony, conducted by John Adams. A dedicated recitalist, she appears with pianist Stephen Prutsman at the University of Texas at Austin, and embarks on a tour of Hawaii with longtime collaborator Gilbert Kalish. She also performs with The Knights Chamber Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, and with the Crash Ensemble at the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall in music written for her by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy.

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, 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 Artistic Director of the Vocal Arts Program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center.

A four-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. Francois d’Assise; Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; John Adams’s El Niño; two volumes of Canteloube’s “Songs of the Auvergne,” and a dozen recital recordings.   Her most recent release on Deutsche Grammophon is “Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra”, the third in a series of acclaimed recordings of Osvaldo Golijov’s music. 

Dawn Upshaw holds honorary doctorate degrees from Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, Allegheny College, and Illinois Wesleyan University.  She began her career as a 1984 winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions and the 1985 Walter W. Naumburg Competition, and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program.  Ms. Upshaw has recorded extensively for the Nonesuch label.  She may also be heard on Angel/EMI, BMG, Deutsche Grammophon, London, Sony Classical, Telarc, and on Erato and Teldec in the Warner Classics Family of labels. She appears by arrangement with IMG Artists.

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Reviews

"Upshaw's is a voice of many modes. Often, in her timbre, there is an edge-of-the seat tension that pulls the audience along inexorably, breathlessly and yet, miraculously, without ever making us tense ourselves. Elsewhere, she can produce a tone and a line so effortless, so restful, so serene that it conjures an effect of pure peace in sonic form. But there is more than voice to Upshaw's art. It is the way she places her ravishing sound at the service of her extraordinary communicative powers that captures our hearts and minds. A catch phrase with great currency among performers is the goal of 'taking ownership of the music.' With Upshaw, the alchemy goes a step further: the music seems to take possession of her, so that she is no longer merely playing a character or shaping a melodic line but giving breath to the living spirit of the piece. She has a gift for rendering the thorniest of modern idioms instantly accessible, as if the earnestness of her yearning to reach another soul through music were enough to break down all resistance."

Opera News

"Leaping effortlessly across language barriers and chasms of mood, the astounding Upshaw spanned the full breadth of her vocal and emotional range. Upshaw's instrument has the kind of power, clarity and pure beauty that can transfix a listener."

St. Paul Pioneer Press

"Sellars’ dramatic setting of George Crumb’s 2004 'The Winds of Destiny (American Songbook IV)' yielded an astonishing performance from Upshaw....Her selfless, soul-baring performance was a career landmark."

Financial Times

"Upshaw has long been one of the most incisive vocal artists on the scene, and she demonstrated great eloquence here [in music of Osvaldo Golijov], using her burnished low register to especially keen effect. In Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Upshaw sang ‘Das Himmlische Leben’ with a true sense of childhood wonder, spinning out a gleaming tone."

Baltimore Sun

"Hearing the astonishing soprano Dawn Upshaw weeping, wailing, groaning, growling and cooing her way through Osvaldo Golijov’s ‘Ayre’ was reassuring evidence that this most refined of artists can reinvent herself more smoothly than just about any other singer today."

Chicago Tribune

"Is it too corny to speak of the dawn of a new day? Upshaw is, in fact, more here than ever. She held nothing back, pouring forth what seemed like new reserves of vocal power, yet sounded fresh and rested all through the demanding music [Lukas Foss’ Time Cycle]….Upshaw’s performances are the stuff of legend."

Los Angeles Times

"I’m in love with Dawn Upshaw. And really, who isn’t? Thursday’s concert reinforced all the reasons we love this down-to-earth diva: her moonbeam voice, her enchanting acting and her generous ease of purpose."

The Oregonian

"Soprano Dawn Upshaw may be America’s foremost operatic ambassador, a singer who radiates warmth in voice and disposition, a diva without a drop of the haughtiness too often associated with the title."

St. Paul Pioneer Press

"One revelation per concert is more than enough, but then came another: Lukas’s Foss Time Cycle with the soprano Dawn Upshaw as soloist [with James Levine and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall]. The vocal writing boldly jumps about the soprano’s register in anxious moments and lingers quizzically during reflection passages. Ms. Upshaw, whose voice sounded radiant and full, made the vocal writing seem natural, true to the words and keenly dramatic."

The New York Times

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Discography