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Meredith Arwady (Contralto) |
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Born: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA |
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The American conntralto, Meredith Arwady Kahrl, studied at Loy Norrix High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan and at Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center. She received a Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied voice with Marlena Kleinman Malas.
A Grand Finals winner of the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Meredith Arwady joined the roster of Astral Artists upon winning its National Auditions. Astral presented her Philadelphia recital. She is also the recipient of other numerous awards and grants, including the 2005 Kirsten Flagstad Award, presented by the George London Foundation for a singer with a promising Wagnerian career, First Prize winner of both the 2004 Licia Albanese/Puccini Competition, the inaugural Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists in 2002, and a 2007 Richard Tucker Career Grant.
As a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera Center ensemble, Meredith Arwady made her mainstage debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2005, as Tisbe in La Cenerentola conducted by Bruno Campanella.
Since then, she has been seen as Pasqualita in Dr. Atomic under Robert Spano, Quickly in Falstaff, Third Lady in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, She-Ancient in Sir Michael Tippett’s A Midsummer Marriage, all under Andrew Davis, as well as productions of Die Frau ohne Schatten, Charles Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and Dialogues des Carmélites.
Meredith Arwady made her Los Angeles Opera debut in Woody Allen’s production of Gianni Schicchi as Zita with Plácido Domingo as Schicchi and was seen at Houston Grand Opera, Oper Frankfurt and the Canadian Opera Company as Erda in Siegfried, as well as the First Norn in Frankfurt. She debuted at the English National Opera as Martha in John Adams’s The Gospel According to the Other Mary in a production by Peter Sellars and returned to the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Hannah in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, Houston Grand Opera as Schwertleite in Die Walküre, and debuted at Madison Opera as Mrs. Lovett in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.
Meredith Arwady recently appeared at the San Francisco Opera as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff under Nicola Luisotti, a role which she then sang in a new production at Oper Frankfurt. She was seen at Houston Grand Opera as Erda in Das Rheingold, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Mme. Croissy in Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Santa Fe Opera in their double-bill The Impresario (Fräulein Krone) and Le Rossignol (Death). She returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Erda in Der Ring des Nibelungen under the baton of Fabio Luisi, a role she also sang at Oper Frankfurt under Sebastian Weigle. She garnered sensational acclaim creating the role of Kathy Hagen in Champion directed by James Robinson and conducted by George Manahan. She also appeared as Auntie in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes with the Aspen Music Festival, in which the New York Times praised her “rich-toned contralto” performance.
Meredith Arwady has appeared with numerous opera companies in a variety of roles. She has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera as Pasqualita in John Adams’s Dr. Atomic under Alan Gilbert and as the Marquise de Berkenfeld in La fille du régiment; San Francisco Opera as Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Mother Abbess in Suor Angelica, and the Marquise de Berkenfeld; Santa Fe Opera as Gaea in Strauss’s Daphne and as the title role in Peter Sellars’s production of Antonio Vivaldi's Griselda; Houston Grand Opera as Auntie in Peter Grimes and in the world premiere of André Previn’s A Brief Encounter; Oper Frankfurt as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera and Erda / First Norn in Der Ring des Nibelungen; English National Opera as Pasqualita in Dr. Atomic; Canadian Opera Company in The Nightingale; Dallas Opera in Boris Godunov; Opera Philadelphia as Quickly in Falstaff; and Fort Worth Opera as Cornelia in George Frideric Handel's Giulio Cesare.
In concert, Meredith Arwady has performend L.v. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Lorin Maazel and Bernard Haitink, both with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony, Christoph Eschenbach with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Alexander Nevsky with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Aspen Music Festival with Robert Spano; G. Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis and Houston Symphony Orchestra; Dr. Atomic with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano; Alexander Nevsky with the Spokane Symphony; G. Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with the North Netherlands Orchestra; Dvorak’s Biblical Songs and Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible with Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain; and the Sir Thomas Beecham orchestration of G.F. Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra. A frequent recitalist, she has been seen in New York City and Chicago recitals under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, as well as recitals sponsored by the Curtis Institute of Music. She has also been featured as a soloist in the Richard Tucker Gala as winner of their Career Grant.
Meredith Arwady has appeared in Chicago Opera Theater’s production of L’incoronazione di Poppea. She performed Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor as a member of San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola Opera Program and returned to Merola to sing Madame Flora in The Medium. In addition, she has performed regularly at the Chautauqua Institute where she interpreted such roles as Madame Flora, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Mrs. Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper, and both Mother and The Square Root of 7 in L’enfant et les sortilèges.
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Engagements for the 2007-2008 season have included: L.v. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 7 with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Edward Elgar's Sea Pictures with the Kalamazoo Symphony, as well as recitals in New York and Chicago sponsored by the Marilyn Horne Foundation.
In the 2008-2009 season, Meredith Arwady debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Pasqualita in John Adam’s Dr. Atomic, and made her European debut at the Oper Frankfurt as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera as well as her English National Opera debut in Dr. Atomic. She sang in Tippett’s, A Child of our Time, as part of Jessye Norman’s Honor! Festival at Carnegie Hall. She made another debut with the Houston Grand Opera, this season, in the world premiere of André Previn’s opera, A Brief Encounter and will joinChautauqua Opera for Menotti’s The Consul this summer.
Meredith Arwady began the 2009-2010 season at the San Francisco Opera, appearing as the Abbess in Suor Angelica and Zita in Gianni Schicchi. San Francisco audiences also heard her in the role of Marquise of Berkenfield in Laurent Pelly’s production of La Fille du Regiment, a role she also recently performed at the Metropolitan Opera this season. She made her debut as Erda in a new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Oper Frankfurt, She appeared on the concert stage this fall with L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Lorin Maazel conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, followed by De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with West Michigan Symphony, and Messiah with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra.
Meredith Arwady began the 2010-2011 season with the role of Auntie in Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. She also joined the Canadian Opera Company on their Brooklyn Academy of Music tour, with roles in Igor Stravinsky's Nightingale and Berceuses du Chat. Dallas Opera audiences heared her in Mussorsky’s Boris Godunov in the spring of 2011, with Cornelia in Giulio Cesare at Fort Worth Opera Festival to follow. She ended the season with the title role of Antonio Vivaldi's Griselda in a new Peter Sellars production at the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2011. On the concert stage, she performed L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony and George Frideric Handel'’s Messiah with the University of Michigan. She opened the 2011-2012 season as Erda in Der Ring des Nibelungen with Oper Frankfurt.
Hailed by critics as a “rarity” and “a genuine contralto,” Meredith Arwady continues to delight audiences in the USA and abroad with rich vocal intensity and captivating stage presence. She is a 2012 Grammy Award winner for Best Opera Recording (John Adams’s Dr. Atomic). In the 2016-2017 season, she will debut at Washington National Opera reprising her acclaimed performance as Kathy Hagen in Terence Blanchard’s Champion. She also will be seen at the Dallas Opera as Filippyevna in Eugene Onegin and Houston Grand Opera as the 1st Norn in Götterdämmerung. In the summer of 2017, she will return to Santa Fe Opera as Amelfa in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Le coq d’or. |
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"But this did allow the deep mezzo-soprano Meredith Arwady as the most properly vociferous of the relatives to make a big impression." -Mark Swed, LA Times (September 13, 2015) - Zita in 'Gianni Schicchi' at LA Opera
"No less accomplished was the imposing achievement of Meredith Arwady as the Old Prioress. This was easily the finest performance I have yet seen from Ms. Arwady, her potent contralto pulsing through her punishing death scene like it was written for her. Not merely content to pin our ears back with her steely capabilities, she found a fine subtlety of expression in her brief but memorable stage time, tugging at our hearts with her fate and her fears." -James Sohre, Opera Today (July 8, 2014) - Mme. Croissy in Dialogues of the Carmelites at Opera Theatre of St. Louis
"The rich-toned contralto Meredith Arwady created a sympathetic character and provided most of the work’s slender comic relief as Auntie, the publican and madam." -James R. Oestreich, New York Times (June 22, 2013) - Peter Grimes at the Aspen Music Festival |
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Source: Columbia Artists Management Website (January 2017); Meredith Arwady Kahrl profile on Facebook; Instant Encore Website; Photos 01, 03, 05, 08: Simon Paudy
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2017) |
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Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works |
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Conductor |
As |
Works |
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John Nelson |
Alto |
V-6 (2012): BWV 245 [2nd recording] |
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Links to other Sites |
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Meredith Arwady - Vocalists Contralto (CAMI)
Meredith Arwady (Instant Encore) |
Meredith Arwady Kahrl on Facebook
Loud, Low and Slow Blog |
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