Dawn Upshaw

Joining a rare natural warmth with a fierce commitment to the transforming communicative power of music, Dawn Upshaw has achieved worldwide celebrity in repertoire ranging from the sacred works of Bach to the freshest sounds of today. In 2007, Upshaw 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. Upshaw has championed numerous new works created for her including The Great Gatsby by John Harbison; L’Amour de Loin and La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho; John Adams’s El Nino; Osvaldo Goljjov’s Ainadamar and Ayre; and more than two dozen other solo, chamber, and orchestral works. Upshaw's 2011-12 season includes performances with the SPCO featuring the world premiere of a new work written for her by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy. As a recitalist she tours this season with pianists Gilbert Kalish and Stephen Prutsman. She performs with the Cleveland, Oregon, and Philadelphia orchestras, among others. With the Australian Chamber Orchestra, she concludes the season with an eight-city tour featuring jazz composer Maria Schneider's new work "Winter Morning Walks", written for her in 2011 and scheduled for recording in May, 2012 following the final performance at Carnegie Hall.