YULIA VAN DOREN (soprano), consistently singled out by critics for her “perfect baroque voice” (Seattle Times), has established herself as a rising star of the new generation of Baroque specialists. A major highlight of the 2010-2011 season includes being a featured artist at the Cartagena International Music Festival, Colombia, where she appears in nationally televised performances of Bach’s B minor Mass with soprano Dawn Upshaw and the City of London Sinfonia, as well as Bach’s Coffee Cantata with the Brentano String Quartet. The season also includes return engagements to the Portland Baroque Orchestra (Messiah under Rinaldo Alessandrini), Seattle Baroque Orchestra (Pergolesi Stabat Mater), St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys (Bach B minor Mass), Pacific Musicworks (Monteverdi Vespers), Seraphic Fire (Bach St. John Passion), American Bach Soloists (Bach and Telemann), Clarion Music Society (Haydn),Ottawa Chamber Music and Vancouver Early Music Festivals (Monteverdi with ensemble Les Voix Baroques), and two major roles with the Boston Early Music Festival: Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, and the role of Manto in the North American première of Steffani’s Niobe, BEMF’s centerpiece opera starring French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky. A winner of Astral Artists’ 2009 National Auditions, she will also be presented in recital with baritone Jonathan Beyer on Astral’s Philadelphia concert series.
Beginning her professional soloist career while still an undergraduate at the New England Conservatory, in recent seasons the young Russian-American soprano has also appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Pacific Symphony, UC Davis Symphony, Colorado Music Festival, and Mercury Baroque, as well as with ensembles Tragicomedia, Teatro Lirico, and Harmonious Blacksmith, and she tours regularly with Mark Morris Dance Group’s iconic production of Dido and Aeneas, including recent performances in Moscow’s Golden Mask Festival. Of her performance of Handel arias with conductor Nicholas McGegan, Northwest Reverb wrote, “It was immediately obvious why she is so highly regarded despite her relative youth: she sang in a dizzyingly intricate coloratura, flawless in timbre while executing rapid, difficult ornamentation with pinpoint accuracy, despite the merciless tempo.” Ms. Van Doren’s operatic debut as the title role in L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Stephen Stubbs and the Early Music Guild of Seattle received unanimous critical acclaim, with one reviewer calling her the “Anna Netrebko of early music” (OperaNow!).
Passionate about 20th- and 21st-century music, Ms. Van Doren recently sang the Hungarian première of Barber’s iconic Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, marking her European debut. She made her Carnegie Hall debut premièring a specially commissioned work by Taiwanese composer Angel Lam, and created the role of Bird in British composer David Bruce’s opera A Bird In Your Ear at Bard Conservatory, which was subsequently showcased in New York City Opera’s prestigious VOX Festival. Dawn Upshaw is an important mentor; she was personally invited by the legendary soprano to be a member of the inaugural class of her graduate program at Bard College, from which Ms. Van Doren received her Master’s degree in 2008.
Her discography includes two Grammy-nominated opera recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival, a disc of rare French baroque music with ensemble La Donna Musicale, and a forthcoming disc of early English music with Canadian ensemble Les Voix Baroques, to be released on the ATMA label in 2011.
Born in Moscow and raised in the United States, Ms. Van Doren has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Villecroze Académie (France) and Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (UK). She has been the recipient of numerous academic scholarships, including the prestigious Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Yulia currently splits her home between New York City and San Francisco.
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