JAMIE BARTON
Photo by BreeAnne Clowdus
Mezzo-soprano
Critically acclaimed by virtually every major outlet covering classical music, American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton is increasingly recognized for how she uses her powerful instrument offstage – lifting up women, queer people, and other marginalized communities. Her lively social media presence on Instagram and Twitter (@jbartonmezzo) serves as a hub for conversations about body positivity, diet culture, social justice issues, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award and Richard Tucker Award, both Main and Song Prizes at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a Grammy nominee, Ms. Barton has been described by The Guardian as “a great artist, no question, with an imperturbable steadiness of tone, and a nobility of utterance that invites comparison not so much with her contemporaries as with mid-20th century greats such as Kirsten Flagstad.”
This season, Ms. Barton is the featured performer on Last Night of the Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, bringing the 2019 BBC Proms festival to a close. She appears as Leonor in La favorite at Houston Grand Opera, Eboli in Don Carlo at Dallas Opera, Fricka in Die Walküre at Reykjavík Arts Festival, and Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Opera. Ms. Barton brings her feminist recital with pianist Kathleen Kelly to Wigmore Hall in London, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, and Herbst Theatre in San Francisco. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera for role debuts as the titular Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and as Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, with a Met Live in HD performance of Stuarda simulcast to cinemas in over seventy countries.
Winner of the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award, Ms. Barton's debut solo album, All Who Wander, featuring songs by Mahler, Dvorak, and Sibelius, was also shortlisted by the International Classical Music Awards and Gramophone Classical Music Awards.