Upshaw, Dawn

▪ 2008

born July 17, 1960, Nashville, Tenn.

      American soprano Dawn Upshaw, known for her exquisite voice and for her meticulous attention to texts in many languages, in 2007 was awarded a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship (a “genius grant”). She was cited for “stretching the boundaries of operatic and concert singing and enriching the landscape of contemporary music.”

      Upshaw received a bachelor's degree in 1982 from Illinois Wesleyan University and a master's degree in 1984 from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Also in 1984 she was successful in the Young Concert Artists auditions and became an apprentice singer with the Metropolitan Opera Company in New York City. In 1985 Upshaw shared the first prize in the Walter M. Naumburg Competition, consequently making her recital debut at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. She appeared nearly 300 times with the Metropolitan Opera and also sang with companies throughout the U.S. and Europe, performing works from all periods of opera history. Upshaw served on the faculties of the Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox, Mass., and Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.

      The recital and chamber-music repertoire was of special interest to Upshaw, and she devoted a substantial part of her time to programs that included selections ranging from art songs to works of the musical theatre and American popular songs. Upshaw was a favoured partner of such notable performers as pianists Gilbert Kalish and Richard Goode, conductors Kent Nagano and Esa-Pekka Salonen (Salonen, Esa-Pekka ), and chamber groups Kronos Quartet and Eighth Blackbird. Upshaw collaborated with a number of contemporary composers, often singing in the first performances of their works; she participated in more than two dozen premieres in the past decade. Significant opera premieres included John Harbison's The Great Gatsby (1999), Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin (2000), and Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (2003).

      Upshaw's discography included more than 50 recordings. She performed in Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3, which Gramophone magazine chose as recording of the year in 1993. (The recording sold more than a million copies, an unusual feat in the classical world.) In addition, she received two Grammy Awards for best classical vocal performance: in 1989 for Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and in 1991 for The Girl with Orange Lips, both collections of songs by 20th- and 21st-century composers. In 2004 the Grammy for the best chamber-music recording was awarded to Berg: Lyric Suite, on which Upshaw collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, and in 2006 she received a Grammy as a performer in the best opera recording, Golijov's Ainadamar.

Robert Rauch

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