Mardi Byers
American soprano,
Mardi Byers is one of the most exciting and
talented artists to have emerged from the United
States of America in recent years. Hailed by the
press as “The Grace Kelly of opera” (Die Welt),
she is making her mark on international opera
and concert stages including the Hamburg State
Opera, the Bregenz Festival, Moscow’s Bolshoi
Theater, New York City Opera, and the BBC Proms.
Her triumphant opera debut as Floria Tosca
at Theater Lübeck in 2003 earned her both
critical and public acclaim, prompting
invitations from leading opera houses to sing
the major roles of her repertoire including
Amelia Simon Boccanegra at the Hamburg State
Opera,
Aida at Finnish National Opera,
Opera Toulon, as well as in Graham Vick’s
production for the Bregenz Festival, Donna Anna
Don Giovanni for Opera Frankfurt and New York
City Opera, Georgette and Suor Angelica Il
Trittico for New Orleans Opera, Elisabetta Don
Carlo for Theater Basel directed by Calixto
Beito, Marietta Die Tote Stadt, the title role
of Tosca, Elizabeth Tannhäuser as well as Emilia
Marty in Janàcek’s opera Vec Makropulos (a
Robert Carson production) at the Nürnberg State
Theater.
In 2011, she was nominated for
Russia’s most prestigious theater award, “The
Golden Mask” for her portrayal of Marie in the
Dmitri Tcherniakov’s celebrated production of
Wozzeck conducted by Teodor Currentzis with the
Bolshoi Theater. She also returned there as a
guest in 2013, performing Der fliegende
Holländer. She has performed 2 Richard Strauss
roles (Chrysothemis Elektra and the title role
in Ariadne auf Naxos) in Nürnberg and most
recently covered the role of Salome at the Santa
Fe Opera Festival.
Mardi Byers’ further
European credits include Aida under the baton of
Daniele Gatti, Elisabetta in Don Carlos in both
the French and Italian versions, Amelia in I
Masnadieri, Marguerite in Faust, the title role
in Adriana Lecouvreur, La Contessa in Le nozze
di Figaro, and Margarete in in Honegger’s Jeanne
d’Arc au Bûcher.
Equally at home on the
concert stage, Mardi Byers has performed
Mahler’s 8th Symphony at the First Night of the
2010 BBC Proms, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder in
Hamburg, the Verdi Requiem in Finnland’s
esteemed Turku Concert Hall, Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony with the Stuttgart Symphony, and
excerpts from Alban Berg’s Wozzeck with the
Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. Recitals have
taken her to San Francisco, Zurich, Munich,
Rome, and Salzburg.
In the 2017/2018
season, Mardi Byers performed with the Zurich
Chamber Orchestra in Offenbach's La vie
parisienne as Baronne Gondremarck. She also
appeared in 2018 at the Scottish Opera and at
the Holland Park Opera in London as Ariadne in
Richard Strauss Ariadne on Naxos.
Mardi
Byers Is currently singing concerts and recitals
internationally. In March she will sing a
program of Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn in Rome,
then with Luisa Prayer on piano. The tour
continues with Clara and Robert Schumann.
At the same time she is in the process of
learning Isolda, Leanora (Verdi’s Forza del
Destino), and Strauss’ Elektra. Up and coming
dates are to be announced.
Mardi Byers is
a native of Boulder, Colorado and currently
makes her home in Zurich, Switzerland.