Joyce DiDonato

Multi Grammy Award winner of the 2016 Best Classical Solo Vocal Album (Joyce and Tony: Live at Wigmore Hall) and the 2012 Best Classical Vocal Solo, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by the New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to the Times, DiDonato has soared to the top of the industry both as a performer and a fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and Mozart, as well as through her wide-ranging, acclaimed discography. She is also widely acclaimed for the bel canto roles of Rossini and Donizetti – the Financial Times judging her recent performances as Elena in La donna del Lago as “simply the best singing I’ve heard in years”.

Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit she has recently held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Recent highlights in opera have included her first Charlotte in Werther for The Royal Opera under Sir Antonio Pappano, the title role in Maria Stuarda at the Metropolitan Opera, for The Royal Opera and at the Liceu in Barcelona; the title role in Alcina on tour with the English Concert and Harry Bicket and Marguerite La damnation de Faust with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle.

DiDonato opens her 2016/17 season in a gala concert with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Ludovic Morlot; she will also give concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and the Berlin Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and a recital with Philippe Jordan in Paris. On the opera stage, she makes her much anticipated debut in the title role of Semiramide in a new production at the Bavarian State Opera under Michele Mariotti; the title role in Ariodante on tour with the English Concert and Harry Bicket; Dido (Les Troyens) under John Nelsons in Strasbourg; and Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito) under Nézet-Séguin in Baden-Baden.

An exclusive recording artist with Erato/Warner Classics, DiDonato’s latest recording – ‘Tony & Joyce’ Live at Wigmore Hall – has been selected as “le choix de France Musique”. Other recordings include Stella di Napoli, a sumptuous bel canto banquet including little-known gems alongside music by Bellini, Rossini and Donizetti. Her Grammy-Award-winning recording Diva Divo comprises arias by male and female characters, celebrating the rich dramatic world of the mezzo-soprano. The following recording Drama Queens was exceptionally well received, both on disc and on several international tours. A retrospective of her first ten years of recordings entitled ReJoyce! was released last year. Other honours include the Gramophone Artist of the Year and Recital of the Year awards, three German Echo Klassik Awards as Female Singer of the Year, and an induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.