 Dutch-American soprano Katharine Dain holds degrees from Harvard University (Boston), Guildhall (London) and Mannes (New York) and currently lives in Rotterdam. She's a musician of insatiable curiosity and unusual imagination, active in opera, orchestral repertoire, oratorio, and chamber music in Europe and North America. After taking the top prize in the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Competition (in which Diapason called her a “revelation”), Dain debuted as Konstanze in a production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the opera houses of Clermont-Ferrand, Avignon, Rouen, Massy, and Reims.
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
include Mozart’s Donna Anna with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Kenneth Montgomery, orchestral song cycles of Dutilleux (Le temps, l'horloge) and Berlioz (Herminie, scène lyrique) with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Bancroft, Brahms Requiem with Cappella Amsterdam under Daniel Reuss, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Orchestre d’Auvergne under Roberto Fores-Veses and recently with the Ludwig Ensemble (in the chamber music version), songs of Berg and Zemlinsky with Het Collectief under Reinbert de Leeuw at Austria’s Osterfestival, Boccherini's Stabat Mater with the Auryn Quartet in the chamber Music series of Bozar Brussels (November 2019).
She made her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton af Antony Hermus in the world premiere of Bram Kortekaas' "Notenkrakers' Notulen". The recording will be released in May 2022.
HER NEWS
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Her recent successful debut at Tapiola Sinfonietta in “Emilie Suite” by Kaija Saariaho. A cooperation that will lead to reinvitations throughout season 2022/2023. Noteworthy too is her debut at the National Opera of Amsterdam in the world première of I missed you forever, an opera after a concept by Manoj Kamps and Lisenka Heijboer Castañón.
The more the artist will appear alongside the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and Flemisch Radio choir in the Matthew Passion at Concertgebouw Amsterdam (April 2022).
Dain debuted with the Dutch National Opera in Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, a co-production of its Talent Development Programme and the experimental company Silbersee. Since then, she has performed numerous contemporary scores with Dutch ensembles including Asko|Schönberg, LUDWIG, the New European Ensemble, the Nieuw Ensemble, and the Ragazze Quartet. Further more she appeared in Paris (Philharmonie), Brussels (La Monnaie), and the Aldeburgh Festival in ENOA’s widely acclaimed original production Be With Me Now (co-mounted by the Festival Aix-en-Provence, the Dutch National Opera, and six other European presenters), in which her rendition of Anne Trulove’s aria from Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress was praised by Arts Desk as “a better performance than any I’ve heard in the opera house.”
She stepped out as soprano soloist in Luigi Nono’s oratorio Il Canto Sospeso at the Holland Festival under Ingo Metzmacher, which led to an invitation from the Teatro Comunale di Bologna to perform the same piece under Roberto Abbado. She has also been called in at the last minute for performances at Ireland’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival (“singing as though the music had been written just for her,” said the Irish Times), a solo recital of Strauss, Marx, and Korngold lieder in the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal (called “a miracle” by Place de l’Opera), Carmina Burana at the Concertgebouw’s Robeco Summer Nights series, and for the world premiere of an oratorio by Dutch composer Jan van de Putte with Asko|Schönberg and Cappella Amsterdam under Reinbert de Leeuw - a performance that was broadcast live on Dutch Radio 4 from the Concertgebouw’s Zaterdagmatinee series and later released commercially on Etcetera Records.
DISCOGRAPHY
"O schöne Nacht" the debut cd-recording released in 2018, of the Damask Vocal Quartet, of which Katharine Dain is one of the co-founders. This remarkable cd won France’s prestigious Prix-Choc awarded by Classica.
“Regards sur l’infini”, the artist's most recent recording (released this Autumn 2020) proposes a selection of songs by Saariaho, Dutilleux, Debussy, Delbos and Messiaen which she recorded together with her musical partner Sam Armstrong for the label "7 Mountain records". A recording awarded by the EDISON AWARD 2021 FOR BEST DEBUT.
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cv-update, season 2021/2022 : please contact the agency to get the most recent biographical details of the artist. |
