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MEREDITH ARWADY

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Contralto

Season 2012-2013

PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUS BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL

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Columbia Artists Management Inc.

Personal Direction: Angela Blasi

1790 Broadway, NY NY 10019; Tel: 212/841 9551; Fax: 212/841-9555

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MEREDITH ARWADY

Contralto

Hailed by critics as a ‘rarity” and “a genuine contralto”, Meredith Arwady continues to delight audiences in the U.S.and abroad with rich vocal intensity and captivating stage presence.

Ms. Arwady a 2012 Grammy recipient, begins the 2012-2013 season performing Dvorak’s Biblical Songs and Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible in concerts with Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain. She then joins the Arizona Opera for Gertrude in Romeo et Juliette and performs the role of Erda in Wagner’s Ring at Oper Frankfurt. Ms. Arwady returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the spring for performances as Erda in Wagner’s Siegfried, followed by concerts in Malmo, Sweden. She closes the season at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she will create the role of Kathy Hagen in Terence Blanchard’s new opera, Champion, directed by James Robinson and conducted by George Manahan.

Highlights of the 2011-2012 season include two role debuts with Oper Frankfurt; as Erda in Wagner’s Siegfried and 1st Norn in Goetterdaemmerung. She returned to Frankfurt later that season for the second cycle of the Ring. On the concert stage, Ms. Arwady was featured in a recital at the Curtis Institute and joined the Boston Symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth Sympony, with Bernard Haitink conducting. Additionally she appeared as Eulalie Shinn in The Music Man at Ash Lawn Festival, and closed the season with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Tanglewood and as alto soloist in Mahler’s 8th Symphony at the Aspen Music Festival.

Ms.Arwady began the 2010-2011 opera season as Auntie in Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Peter Grimes. She appeared with the Canadian Opera Company in Stravinsky’s Nightingale and Berceuses du Chat in Toronto and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Dallas Opera audiences heard her in Mussorsky’s Boris Godunov in the spring of 2011, and she appeared as Cornelia in Giulio Cesare at Fort Worth Opera Festival. Ms. Arwady ended the season at the Santa Fe Opera, performing the title role in the new Peter Sellars production of Vivaldi’s Griselda. On the concert stage, she performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony and Handel’s Messiah at the University of Michigan.

Highlights of the 2009/2010 season include appearances as the Abbess in Suor Angelica and Zita in Gianni Schicchi at the San Francisco Opera. San Francisco audiences also heard her in the role of Marquise of Berkenfield in Laurent Pelly’s production of La Fille du Regiment, a role she also performed at the Metropolitan Opera this same season. Ms. Arwady made her role debut as Erda in a new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Oper Frankfurt. She appeared on the concert stage with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Loren Maazel conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and performed De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with West Michigan Symphony, as well as Messiah with the Washington National Symphony.

In the 2008-2009 season, contralto Meredith Arwady debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Pasqualita in John Adam’s Dr. Atomic, conducted by Alan Gilbert. She made her European debut at the Oper Frankfurt as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, followed by another debut at the English National Opera, again in Adam’s Dr. Atomic. Ms. Arwady then returned to the US for a debut with the Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of André Previn’s opera, A Brief Encounter and finishes the season with performances as ‘The Mother’ in a Chautauqua Opera production of Menotti’s The Consul. Concert engagements for this season have included Dr. Atomic with the Atlanta Symphony, conducted by Robert Spano, Messiah with the Chicago International Music Foundation and Tippett’s A Child of our Time, as part of Jessye Norman’s Honor! Festival at Carnegie Hall.

Engagements for the 2007-2008 season included Ms. Arwady’s Santa Fe Opera debut as Gaea in Strauss’ Daphne, the Peter Sellars production of John Adam’s Dr. Atomic, conducted by Robert Spano and appearances as Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis; both at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Also that season at Lyric Opera, she appeared in a new production of Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Ms. Arwady performed Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Bach’s Cantata No. 7 with the Seattle Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Houston Symphony, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Kalamazoo Symphony, and was featured in New York and Chicago recitals, sponsored by the Marilyn Horne Foundation.

Highlights of the 2006-2007 Season included debuts with the New York Philharmonic in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky; with the Toronto Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis; and with Pittsburgh Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, also conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. On the opera stage, she appeared with the Opera Company of Philadelphia in Falstaff as Mistress Quickly and appeared with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Roméo et Juliette and Les Dialogues des Carmelites. She was also heard as a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Chicago Philharmonic; and again with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Christoph Eschenbach at the Ravinia Festival, and in the Richard Tucker Gala at Avery Fisher Hall.

Ms. Arwady has appeared in Chicago Opera Theater’s production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. She performed Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor as a member of San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Opera Program and returned to Merola to sing Madame Flora in The Medium. In addition, Ms. Arwady has performed regularly at the Chautauqua Institute where she interpreted such roles as Madame Flora, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Mrs. Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper, and both Mother and The Square Root of 7 in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.

A Grand Finals winner of the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Meredith Arwady joined the roster of Astral Artists upon winning its 2002 National Auditions. Astral presented her Philadelphia recital She is also the recipient of other numerous awards and grants, including the 2005 Kirsten Flagstad Award, presented by the George London Foundation for a singer with a promising Wagnerian career, First Prize winner of both the 2004 Licia Albanese/Puccini Competition, the inaugural Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists in 2002, and a 2007 Richard Tucker Career Grant. As a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera Center ensemble, Ms. Arwady made her mainstage debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2005, as Tisbe in La Cenerentola conducted by Bruno Campanella, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, and She-Ancient in Sir Michael Tippett’s A Midsummer Marriage, both conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

Born in Michigan, Ms. Arwady received a Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied voice with Marlena Kleinman Malas. Curtis Opera Theatre featured her in the roles of Mother in The Consul, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea, the Baroness in Vanessa, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, and Maman in L’Enfant et les sortilèges.

July 2012 (AB)