JENNIFER BLACK, SOPRANO

American lyric soprano Jennifer Black is making exceptional debuts in her very young career. With the Metropolitan Opera, she performed Lisa in a new production of La Sonnambula in 2009, and returned in 2010 as Micäela in Carmen. With the Santa Fe Opera, she made her debut as Micäela in Carmen during the 2006 summer season, and has since returned for role debuts as Mimi in La Bohème summer 2007 and Adina in The Elixir of Love during the summer 2009. With the New York City Opera, she made her company debut as Musetta in La Bohème in April 2006, and recently returned as Micäela in Carmen.

Additional noted engagements from the past two seasons included her Los Angeles Opera debut as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica in a new production of Il Trittico, her Minnesota Opera debut as Mimi in La Bohème, her Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse debut as 5th Magd in Elektra, Mlle. Jouvenot in Adriana Lecouvreur at the MET, her role debut as Juliette in Romeo et Juliette with PORT Opera (Maine), and her role debut as Violetta in La Traviata in concert with the Greensboro Opera.  In the summer 2010, she made her concert debut with the New York Philharmonic as Amanda in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and made her role debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Opera New Jersey.

In the 2010-2011 season, she returns to Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse as Musetta in La Bohème, makes her role debut as Desdemona in Otello with the Arizona Opera, makes her production debut as Violetta with Opera Carolina, and performs Micäela in Carmen at the Nashville Opera.

    
In concert, Ms. Black recently performed Carmina Burana with New Choral Society, Schumann duets with Matthew Plenk and the MET Chamber Ensemble in Weill Recital Hall with Ken Noda at the piano, and was presented in recital by the George London Foundation at the Morgan Library in NYC. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with harpist Grace Cloutier.

Ms. Black completed the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program in 2008, and was formerly a member of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, where she performed Nella in Gianni Schicchi, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and Musetta. A graduate of the Yale School of Music, Ms. Black performed the title roles of Kat’a Kabanova and Suor Angelica, as well as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte.

Awards and recognition include a 2008 Opera Index Award, a 2007 George London/Leonie Rysanek Award and second place in the 2007 Loren L. Zachary Society Competition. She was also a 2000 Metropolitan Opera National Council Awards finalist, a recipient of a 2005 Sullivan Grant, and a finalist in the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, the Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition, the Connecticut Opera Guild, and the MacAllister Awards.