Deborah Voigt, singer and musical personality

at a glance

A Chicago native raised in southern California, Deborah Voigt is recognized as one of the world’s most versatile singers and one of music’s most endearing personalities. Having made her name as a leadingdramatic soprano, internationally revered for her performances in the operas ofWagner, Strauss and others, she isalso an active recitalist and performer ofBroadway standards and popular songs. Voigt has an extensive discography, and her masterclasses are enthusiastically received. She appears regularly – as both performer and host – in the Met’s Live in HD series, which is transmitted live to movie theaters around the world. Honored in the media with a CBS60 Minutesprofile, features inPeopleandVanity Fair, spotlights inMoreandO – the Oprah Magazine, and appearances onGood Morning America,CNN,andthenationwide telecast of the MACY*S Thanksgiving Day Parade and July 4fireworks celebration,Voigt has become America’s most visible and beloved diva.As WQXR’s inaugural Susan W. Rose Artist-in-Residence, she hosts the classical station’s new series The Sopranos with Debbie Voigt, hosts and performs at the New York Public Radio Gala, and she co-hosts the opening-night broadcast of Carnegie Hall Live, as well as a number of opera events and masterclasses at WQXR’s Greene Space. Her memoir, Call Me Debbie: True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Diva, will be published by HarperCollins in January 2015.

Highlights of 2014-15 season:

  • Jan: Call Me Debbie:True Confessions of a Down-to-Earth Divato be published by HarperCollins. Tell-all autobiography goes onstage and off; includes her battles with food and alcohol addictions, plus behind-the-scenes and onstage anecdotes, secrets to great singing.
  • Season-long Artist-in-Residence in Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program: coaching sessions, group classes, leading career roundtable discussions
  • Season-long Artist-in-Residence at NY’s WQXR: hosting programs, broadcasts & events
  • Oct: returns to title role of Richard Strauss’s Salome in 4 performances at Dallas Opera
  • April: Hanna Glawari (role debut) in Michigan Opera Theater: Lehar’s The Merry Widow

Interesting facts:

  • May 2014: made special (unannounced) guest appearance singing medley of songs with Kristin Chenoweth (Glee, Wicked, etc.) in Broadway star’s concert at Carnegie Hall
  • Spring 2014: hosted WQXR/WNYC’s Music is a Holy Art: A Richard Strauss Celebration, documentary marking 150thanniversary of Strauss’s birth
  • March 17, 2014: Voigt’s 250th performance at Met (in Berg’s Wozzeck)
  • Starred in Met’s Robert Lepage production of Wagner’s Ring cycle: role debut as Brünnhilde
  • Named by Los Angeles Times as one of top 25 cultural tweeters to follow
  • Her return to Covent Garden in June 2008, heralded by YouTube spoof video, was a media sensation in US and UK, with coverage by Good Morning America, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Associated Press, and BBC TV, among others
  • Her singing talent was discovered when she performed in Sunday church services.
  • Her favorite roles in high school musicals: Agnes Gooch in Mame; Marian the Librarian in The Music Man; music of Broadway continues to be a career staple. 2002: headlined benefit concert for Classical Action (a fundraising program of Broadway Cares)at NYC’s Ford Center with 5 leading Broadway men.Has appeared twice in Lincoln Center’s “American Songbook” series. Summer 2011: title role in Annie Get Your Gun at Glimmerglass Festival, and as festival’s first artist-in-residence, gave first public performance of Voigt Lessons
  • May 2003: after her role debut as Wagner’s Isolde at Vienna State Opera, received 20-minute standing ovation, which was reported by CNN
  • After performing as Aida at Met with Pavarotti, was surprised backstage by President Bill Clinton.A photo of Voigt and the President, with Pavarotti in background, appeared in People.

Critical acclaim:

  • “The only diva who might carry on Beverly Sills’ role as ‘opera cheerleader’ in America.”― NY Times
  • “Of particular delight: the friendly openness of the great American dramatic soprano Deborah Voigt – a Brünnhilde to reckon with.” ―Entertainment Weekly
  • “Internationally renowned…for her unique combination of exquisite singing and hilarious comic acting.” – Vanity Fair
  • “Her timorous sweetness and…spitfire sassiness come across as affectingly authentic. … Why shouldn’t a Wagnerian soprano who has been smitten with musical theater since childhood fulfill a fantasy? … Ms. Voigt was delightful."― New York Times (on Annie Get Your Gun)
  • “Voigt comes to pop singing naturally. She creates each musical mood so perfectly and demonstrates such show-biz savvy that it makes me wish she had more opportunities … If this were 1970, she would probably be given her own network variety show; let’s hope that Conan O’Brien and David Letterman have her on soon. – Opera News
  • “Not only has her majestic voice made her fans love her, but so has the soprano’s profound feeling for texts and subtleties of musical style, not to mention her genuine sense of humor.” – WSJ

Recent television and HD appearances:

  • Deborah Voigt interviews Patti Smith at Met opening night : Sept 27, 2010
  • NY-1’s One On 1: March, 2009
  • ABC’s Good Morning America: June 16, 2008
  • CBS’s 60 Minutes: January 29, 2006
  • CNN’s American Morning: April 12, 2005

Recordings:

  • Full Met “Ring” cycle, in which she starred as Brünnhilde, released as Blu-ray DVD (DG)in Sept 2012; won Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Voigt has starred in many complete opera recordings, including title role in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (DG) and Flying Dutchman (as Senta, Sony); Strauss’s Egyptian Helen (Telarc),Ariadne auf Naxos (DG), Elektra (as Chrysothemis, DG), Die Frau Ohne Schatten (Teldec), and Friedenstag (DG); Berlioz’s Les Troyens (Cassandre, Decca)
  • Two solo recordings on Angel/EMI Classics: All My Heart,music by Ives, Beach, Griffes, and Bernstein, plus songs by Ben Moore; and Obsessions, Wagner and Strauss arias and scenes. Both CDs were Billboard bestsellers; Obsessions was one of New York Times’s Best CDs of 2004.

Some career notes:

  • Learnedropes of her profession in San Francisco Opera's Merola Young Artists Program
  • Breakthrough performance at Boston Lyric Opera in 1991 in what would become her signature role: Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos
  • Performs in world’s great houses, including London’s Royal Opera House, La Scala Milano, Opéra Bastille in Paris, Vienna State Opera, Liceu Barcelona, Berlin Deutsche Oper, San Francisco Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. With her home company, the Met, Voigt has given 160 performances in more than a dozen roles, concerts, galas, and surprise appearances since her debut there in 1991.

Awards and media recognition:

  • 2009: Honorary Doctorate from University of South Carolina
  • 2006: Opera News Award for distinguished achievement in opera
  • Musical America’s 2003 Vocalist of the Year
  • 2002: Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
  • 1990: Gold Medal at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition
  • 1988: Gold Medal at Philadelphia’s Pavarotti Competition
  • features in Peopleand Vanity Fair, spotlights in More and O – the Oprah Magazine
  • CBS 60 Minutes profile; appearances on Good Morning America, CNN, andnationwide telecast of MACY*S Thanksgiving Day Parade and July 4fireworks celebration

High-res pictures can be downloaded here:

Key 2014-15dates:

July 13: Ravinia Festival/Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Ted SperlingHighland Park, IL

July 17, 18: Music Academy of the WestSanta Barbara, CA

July 22, 24, 30: Aspen Music FestivalAspen, CO

Aug 3-13: Mirjam Helin Int’l Singing CompetitionHelsinki, Finland

Sep 27: Las Vegas PhilharmonicLas Vegas, NV

Oct 20, Nov 2, 5, 8: Dallas Opera: Straus: SalomeDallas, TX

Dec 21, 28, Jan 4, 17: Hamburg State Opera: Wagner: TannhäuserHamburg, Germany

Jan 27:Call Me Debbie(memoir) published by HarperCollinsNorth America

April 11, 15, 18, 19: Michigan Opera Theater: Lehar: The Merry WidowDetroit, MI

April 25: Performance with University of Southern MI Sym. OrchHattiesburg, MS

June 11, 12, 13: Performances with Pacific Symphony OrchestraSanta Ana, CA

www.deborahvoigt.com

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