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The American soprano, Linh Kauffman, earned music degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Maryland, and completed her Doctorate as a Berneking Scholar at the University of Minnesota. She also holds the Certificate in Vocal Pedagogy from the Schuessler Vocal Arts Center of the University of Minnesota. She was the winner of the 2007 Voices of Vienna Vocal Prize Competition and studied with Edda Moser at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in the summer of 2007.
Praised as “vocally and dramatically powerful” by the Washington Post and “radiant” by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Linh Kauffman enjoys an active career in opera, oratorio, new music, and recital.
An active oratorio soloist, Linh Kauffman has sung J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) for the University of Minnesota Bach Festival; J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243), Haydn’s Nelson Mass and Dietrich Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu nostri with the Bach Chamber Players of St. Paul; J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), Ascension Oratorio (BWV 11) and numerous cantatas with the Bach Society of Minnesota; Roman motets with Consortium Carissimi; and George Frideric Handel's Judas Maccabaeus and Semele, Antonio Vivaldi's Gloria and Orff's Carmina Burana with California Chamber Symphony and the San Francisco City Chorus.
Recent operatic appearances include Aspasia in W.A. Mozart's Mitridate for Metamorphosis Opera Theater, the title role in Pocahontas: Woman of Two Worlds for Duluth Festival Opera, The Governess (Turn of the Screw) and the Countess in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with the University of Minnesota Opera Theatre, the title role in G.F. Handel's Acis and Galatea with Berkeley Opera and Maria in Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story at Sierra Repertory Theatre. Other roles include Pamina and Papagena in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Elvira in Italian Girl in Algiers and productions with Opera Vivente, West Bay Opera, Pocket Opera, and Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre.
An accomplished chamber musician of both early and contemporary music, Linh Kauffman has appeared with Spire Chamber Ensemble, Seraphic Fire, Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Rose Ensemble, and Piffaro. She has sung works by Stockhausen and Cage, operas by Gustav Holst, Weill, and Zemlinsky, and the first staged production of Bowles' A Picnic Cantata. She gave a reading of Hector Armienta's new opera River of Women/Rio de Mujeres for San Francisco Opera’s Opera Viva! residency program, and went on to create the role of Elisa in the world premiere. She also created the principal role of Teenage Aileen in the world premiere of Carla Lucero's Wuornos and was seen in The Mistress Cycle at TheatreWorks as part of its New Works Festival.
Highlights of recent seasons include solos with Minnesota Orchestra (Arvo Pärt’s Como cierva sedienta with Osmo Vänskä), the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (McMillan's Seven Last Words from the Cross), the Akron Symphony (Haydn's The Seasons) and the Richmond Symphony (J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244)). She toured Germany as the choral soloist in Sven-David Sandstrom's Messiah at the Rheingau Festival, Berlin Philharmonie, and on German radio and appeared with the Festival Ensemble Stuttgart in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music. She has twice been a young artist at the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall, working with Ton Koopman on G.F. Handel choral works and Helmuth Rilling on Haydn's Creation. She performed Tarik O'Regan's cantata The Ecstasies Above with the Alchemy Ensemble, the Angel in Ottorino Respighi's Lauda per la Natività del Signore and Igor Stravinsky's Mass with the Bach Chamber Players of St. Paul, and Carmina Burana with the Oratorio Society of Minnesota.
Linh Kauffman recently made her Latin American debut as Melia in W.A. Mozart’s Apollo et Hyacinthus at the Teatro Nacional de Panamá. She was a festival artist the Oregon Bach Festival, soloing under Helmuth Rilling in Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah, L.v. Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and in lecture concerts of J.S. Bach's Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) for the festival’s Digital Bach Project, as well as soloing for the festival's new artistic director, Matthew Halls, in scenes from Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes and Hymn to St. Cecilia.
During the 2014-2015 season, Linh Kauffman's calendar includes the Minnesota Orchestra’s season opening concerts of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Osmo Vänskä, G. Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Panama Early Music Festival with Spain’s Forma Antiqva, concerts with the Minnesota Bach Ensemble and the title role in G.F. Handel's Esther with Lyra Baroque Orchestra.
Linh Kauffman's growing discography includes Jocelyn Hagen’s Songs of Fields and Prairies, Aaron David Miller’s Clamor for organ, voice and percussion, and a forthcoming recording project of Baroque oratorios and cantatas by Carissimi and Graziani with Consortium Carissimi for Naxos. She can be heard as the second soprano soloist in Haydn's Heiligmesse for Hänssler Classic with Helmuth Rilling.
Linh Kauffman is based in Minneapolis and with current and former members of the Minnesota Orchestra, is a founding member of the Minnesota Bach Ensemble. |
