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The American soprano, Lauren Skuce, studied at SUNY Buffalo; SUNY College at Fredonia; Juilliard School, New York. A Sullivan Award winner, she is the recipient of many notable prizes, including the 2002 DeRosa Career Grant from the Juilliard School, the Catherine Filene Shouse Study Grant from Wolf Trap Opera, the Richard Gaddes Fund Career Grant from Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, a London Foundation Career Grant, a Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Study Grant, and an Opera Index award.
Lauren Skuce is noted for her versatility on both the opera and concert stage, and is acknowledged as one of today's rising young artists. She created the role of Heloise in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' Heloise and Abelard with the Juilliard Opera Center and portrayed Ophelia in Hamlet with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to immense critical acclaim. As a 2007 fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, she sang Fiordiligi in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte under James Levine. Of that appearance the New York Times observed, "Ms. Skuce gave a splendid performance, singing with warm, rich tone and endless agility."
Recent season highlights include Liù in Turandot with Opera Hong Kong; Alexandra in Blitzstein's Regina and two rarely performed works by Dmitri Shostakovich - Lidochka in D. Shostakovich's only musical, Moscow: Cherry Tree Towers, and Podtochina's Daughter in D. Shostakovich's opera, The Nose - all at Bard's SummerScape Festival. She appeared as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and with Syracuse Opera, as Marguerite in Faust with Palm Beach Opera, in Haydn's Scena di Berenice and as Morgana in George Frideric Handel's Alcina with Boston Baroque, and as Micaëla in Carmen with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
With New York City Opera, Lauren Skuce made her debut as Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, performed Mrs. Anderssen in A Little Night Music, Suor Genevieve in Suor Angelica, Laoula in L'Étoile, and returned to sing Morgana in a new production of G.F. Handel's Alcina. Other operatic highlights include Albina in La donna del lago with Opera Orchestra of New York, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro and Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Wolf Trap Opera, Adele in Die Fledermaus with San Francisco Opera's Western Opera Theater, Ophelia in Hamlet with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Blanche de la Force in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites and the title role in Cavalli's La Calisto with the Juilliard Opera Center.
Lauren Skuce made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performing Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater. On the concert stage, she sang the Mozart Requiem and Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, appeared and toured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performed Messiah with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, was soloist in D. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 at Bard SummerScape, and performed Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York.
During the 2006-2007 season, Lauren Skuce appeared as Mimi in La bohème with Kentucky Opera, and as Ophélie in Hamlet with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Concert performances included Bruce Adolphe's Wind Across the Sky with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Verdi's Requiem at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2007-2008 she performed as Fiordiligi in a return engagement with Boston Baroque, as Mimi in La bohème with Madison Opera, was heard in a recital of Russian art song for the Helicon Foundation, sang as soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and in L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2008, she performed Dorella in Wagner's Das Liebesverbot at Glimmerglass Opera. Her 2008-2009 season currently includes the roles of Marguerite in Faust with Opera Grand Rapids and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro in her debut with Florida Grand Opera.
An accomplished recitalist, Lauren Skuce made her New York City recital debut in Alice Tully Hall, and has appeared with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the New York Festival of Song in works varying from Caccini to D. Shostakovich and Gershwin. She has been heard in New York under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation's recital series "On Wings of Song," in a recital of Tchaikovsky songs at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and in solo recital in West Palm Beach. |
