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Dawn Upshaw | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-07-17)July 17, 1960 (age 65) |
| Genres | Classical |
| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active | 1984–present |
Dawn Upshaw (born July 17, 1960) is an Americansoprano. She is the recipient of severalGrammy Awards and has released a number ofEdison Award-winning discs; she performs bothopera andart song, and her repertoire spansBaroque tocontemporary. Many composers, includingHenri Dutilleux,Osvaldo Golijov,John Harbison,Esa-Pekka Salonen,John Adams, andKaija Saariaho, have written for her. In 2007, she was awarded aMacArthur Fellowship.[1] In 2006, she founded the Graduate Vocal Arts Program atBard College Conservatory in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, serving as artistic director until 2019. She currently serves as head of the Vocal Arts Program at theTanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.
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Dawn Upshaw was born inNashville, Tennessee. She began singing while attendingRich East High School inPark 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 fromIllinois Wesleyan University, where she studied voice with Dr. David Nott. She went on to study voice withEllen Faull at theManhattan School of Music inNew York City, earning her M.M. in 1984. She also attended courses given byJan DeGaetani at theAspen Music School. She was a winner of theYoung Concert Artists International Auditions (1984) and theWalter M. Naumburg Competition (1985), and was a member of theMetropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program. Since her start in 1984, Upshaw has made more than 300 appearances at theMetropolitan Opera.
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Upshaw came to international fame with her performance on the million-selling recording (1992), withDavid Zinman, ofSymphony No 3 byHenryk Górecki, known as theSymphony of Sorrowful Songs (Symfonia pieśni żałosnych).
She has premiered more than twenty-five new works, notablyHenri Dutilleux's song-cycleCorrespondances, and has embraced several pieces created for her, including theGrawemeyer Award-winning operaL'Amour de Loin byKaija Saariaho,The Great Gatsby byJohn Harbison, the nativityoratorioEl Niño byJohn Adams, andOsvaldo Golijov's highly acclaimedchamber operaAinadamar andsong cycleAyre. In 2009, she premieredDavid Bruce's song cycleThe North Wind was a Woman at the gala opening of the Chamber Music Society of theLincoln Center's season.
In addition to her operatic recordings, she has also sung the title role in the first complete recording of the score ofGershwin'sOh, Kay!.[2] She has also recorded albums of songs byVernon Duke andRodgers and Hart.[3] Upshaw was a guest ofPresident of the United StatesBill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton on theNBC specialChristmas in Washington. TheBBC presented a prime-time telecast of her 1996 LondonProms Concert,Dawn at Dusk, in which she performed songs from Americanmusical theater. Her engagements withJames Levine over many years led to a 1997 recording ofClaude Debussy songs.
Upshaw appears on an album of Christmas music in association with the male vocal ensembleChanticleer titledChristmas with Chanticleer featuring special guest Dawn Upshaw for Teldec Classics.[4]
Upshaw tours regularly with pianistGilbert Kalish.Richard Goode and Margo Garrett are also long-standing partners. She has worked with directorPeter Sellars many times, including on his staging ofHändel'sTheodora atGlyndebourne, hisParis production ofStravinsky'sThe Rake's Progress—as part of theLos Angeles Philharmonic andEsa-Pekka Salonen's month-long residency at theThéâtre du Châtelet, 1996—a staging of Bach's cantataMein Herze schwimmt im Blut, BWV 199, presented in the 1995–96 season at New York's92nd Street Y, and theSalzburg Festival production ofOlivier Messiaen'sSaint François d'Assise (1998). Upshaw has often performed as a soloist at the annualOjai 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 ofGeorge Crumb's workWinds of Destiny. She joined theSaint Paul Chamber Orchestra as artistic partner beginning with the 2007–08 season. In 2006, she founded the Graduate Vocal Arts Program atBard College Conservatory in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, serving as artistic director until 2019, when she was succeeded byStephanie Blythe.[5] She currently serves as head of the Vocal Arts Program atTanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts.[6]
Upshaw holdshonorarydoctorates of arts fromYale University, theManhattan School of Music,Illinois Wesleyan University, andAllegheny College. She is an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University from 2020 to 2026.[7]
Upshaw is a divorced mother of two. She lives near New York City.[8] She was diagnosed with and treated for early-stage breast cancer in 2006.[9]
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
2014 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Soloist
