Amanda Majeski: up-and-coming american soprano

Photo: Amanda Majeski (soprano) copyright Dario Acosta 2011

The young American soprano Amanda Majeski, made her Santa Fe Opera debut this season as the villainous Ottone in Vivaldi's La Griselda. She came into prominence with acclaimed performances of Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito in a production directed by Christopher Alden for Chicago Opera Theater in the spring of 2009.  She was a member of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center where in her first season she appeared as Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. During Lyric’s last season, she covered the student performances of Micaela in Carmen, Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Iole in Handel's Hercules. She made her debut with the Pittsburgh Opera as Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites and sings Agathe’s arias from Die Freischutz in concerts with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the training orchestra affiliated with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She completed Master’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she has performed the roles of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Erisbe in L’Ormindo, Magda in La Rondine, The Woman with the Cake Box in Postcard from Morocco, Nuria in Ainadamar and Soprano in La Voix Humaine. Amanda was a  also a member of San Francisco Opera’s 2008 Merola Program, participated in the Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, and joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center in 2009. In late 2009, she sang Marguerite in a concert performance of Faust at Washington Concert Opera, with Charles Castronovo and John Relyea. She is a 2007 recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation and made her Weill Hall recital debut in 2008 as a member of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. The 2011 – 2012 season will see Amanda Majeski as a featured member of the ensemble at the Semperoper Dresden. In Dresden, she will sing the sorceress Alcina in a new production of Handel’s 'Alcina', Countess Madeleine in Richard Strauss’s 'Capriccio', Countess Almaviva in Mozart’s 'Le nozze di Figaro' and Vitellia in 'La clemenza di Tito'. She . . . will also make her role debut as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s 'Così fan tutte' in a new production by Christopher Alden at New York City Opera. Future seasons will see Ms. Majeski at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Glyndebourne Festival, Oper Frankfurt, Opernhaus Zurich, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Canadian Opera Company.

Amanda's profile on Opera News Magazine

 http://www.operanews.com/Opera_News_Magazine/2011/8/Departments/Sound_Bites__Amanda_Majeski.html