Dawn Upshaw

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, the soprano Dawn Upshaw began her career in 1984 as the winner of the Young Concert Artists Auditions. The Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she has performed more than 300 times to date, has become her central place of activity. She has also appeared regularly at the Salzburg Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, and the Opéra de Paris. Upshaw’s repertoire ranges from Bach through Mozart to contemporary music. She has sung in the world premieres of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby, Kaija Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, John Adams’s El Niño, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar. Her CDs have won no fewer than five Grammy Awards; her recording of Henryk Gorecki’s Third Symphony has sold more than a million copies. Dawn Upshaw holds several honorary doctorates and heads the vocal departments of the Bard College Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center.

August 2016