LUCY DHEGRAE
Vocalist
Founder & Director
Resonant Bodies Festival
Photo by Ariadne Greif
Hometown
Lansing, MI
Resides
New York, NY
Education
University of Michigan, Bard College Conservatory
2018/19 Highlights:
• Voices from the Killing Jar with Talea Ensemble
• Workshopping new Donnacha Dennehy opera in Ireland and Princeton, NJ
• World premiere with new commissioning project at Resonant Bodies Festival
• Repeat performance at Michigan State University in response to Larry Kramer sexual abuse case
• Performance with Albany Symphony's Dogs of Desire on the American Music Festival
Photo by Piotr Redlinski
“Vocal versatility and an omnivorous curiosity” (New York Times) are the hallmarks of vocalist Lucy Dhegrae, whose flexible technique fits a variety of styles. She has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea Ensemble, and Cantata Profana at such venues as Miller Theatre, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. Dhegrae, who is “everywhere new music is being sung” (New York Classical Review) regularly premieres new works. Her opera premieres include Trillium J by Anthony Braxton, Andy: A Popera (Opera Philadelphia/Bearded Ladies Cabaret), A Marvelous Order by Judd Greenstein, and Ashley Fure’s The Force of Things. Dhegrae’s festival appearances include Darmstadt (Germany), Klangspuren (Austria), Mostly Mozart, Bard Music Festival, Gesher Music Festival (St. Louis), and Aldeburgh Music Festival (as a Britten-Pears Young Artist).
Upcoming projects include Kate Soper’s Voices From the Killing Jar with Talea Ensemble; legendary AACM composer Anthony Braxton’s Syntactical Ghost Trance Music at Roulette, accompanying a 12-CD release featuring Dhegrae as an improvisor; the Dublin and NYC workshop of a new opera by Irish composer Donnacha Dennehy; and returning to Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival at EMPAC as a soloist, premiering works with their contemporary music ensemble Dogs of Desire.
Photo by Bradley Scott Rosen
In September 2018, Dhegrae premieres her first music theatre project, devised with composers Eve Beglarian, Angélica Negrón, Osnat Netzer, and Katherine Young at Roulette. Stage directed by Alison Moritz, the piece examines the fracturization of the body after trauma, and how it is slowly brought together, weaving methods like EMDR and Somatic Experiencing into the staging and sound.
Dhegrae is the 2018 recipient of University of Michigan School of Music’s Emerging Artist Award, and a semi-finalist in the Concert Artist Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition in New York City. As “soprano and raconteur” (The New Yorker) she directs Resonant Bodies Festival, which she founded in 2013, presenting stars of boundary-breaking contemporary vocal music around the world. She has taught at SoundSCAPE (Cesena, Italy), Banff Centre (Alberta, Canada), Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and has presented lectures at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, CUNY’s Graduate Center, and William Paterson University. Dhegrae serves on the board of the American Composers Forum and volunteers with the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) as a public speaker and advocate for survivors of sexual violence.