Dawn Upshaw

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 Awardwinning discs she performs both opera and art song and her repertoire spans Baroque to contemporary Many composers including Henri Dutilleux Osvaldo Golijov John Harbison EsaPekka Salonen John Adams and Kaija Saariaho have written for her In 2007 she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship 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 BA 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 MM 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 Upshaw came to international fame with her performance on the millionselling recording 1992 with David Zinman of Symphony No 3 by Henryk Górecki known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs Symfonia pieśni żałosnych She has premiered more than twentyfive new works notably Henri Dutilleuxs songcycle Correspondances and has embraced several pieces created for her including the Grawemeyer Awardwinning opera LAmour de Loin by Kaija Saariaho The Great Gatsby by John Harbison the nativity oratorio El Niño by John Adams and Osvaldo Golijovs highly acclaimed chamber opera Ainadamar and song cycle Ayre In 2009 she premiered David Bruces song cycle The North Wind was a Woman at the gala opening of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centres season In addition to her operatic recordings she has also sung the title role in the first complete recording of the score of Gershwins Oh Kay She has also recorded albums of songs by Vernon Duke and Rodgers and Hart 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 primetime 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 Source Article Dawn Upshaw from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30