Jennifer Lane

Born: Chicago, Illinois, USA

The American mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Lane, is recognized internationally for her stunning interpretations of repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to that of contemporary composers. She has appeared at festivals worldwide, with such noted conductors Michael Tilson-Thomas, Mstislav Rostropovich, William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, Andrew Parrott, Christopher Hogwood, Marc Minkowski, Helmut Rilling, and Robert Shaw, among others.

Her performances have brought acclaim from audiences in opera and concert at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Salzburger Bachgesellschaft, National Arts Center in Ottawa, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Tanglewood Festival, Caramoor Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Bethlehem Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, the New Getty Center, the Frick Collection in New York, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Opernhaus Halle, Opernhaus Dessau, Utah Opera and Opera du Caen.

A noted early music specialist, Jennifer Lane appears frequently with many of the most noted period instrument orchestras: Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, New York Collegium, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Tafelmusik, American Bach Soloists, Boston's Handel & Haydn Society and Le Parlement de Musique. She is also a frequent guest with symphony orchestras and has performed with the Jerusalem Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Honolulu Symphony and the Orchestra della Toscana. She has been seen in opera at Opernhaus Halle, Opernhaus Dessau, Santa Fe Opera, Utah Opera and in New York City Opera, where she has performed over twenty roles, including the role of Amastre in NYCO's acclaimed production of Georg Frideric Handel’s Xerxes, directed by Stephen Wadsworth and voted "opera production of the year" by USA Today. She joined the Metropolitan Opera in productions of Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron and Janacek's Katya Kabanova in 1999.

Highlights of her career include the Göttingen Händel Festival under Nicholas McGegan in Ariodante, recorded for Harmonia Mundi USA which won a Gramophone Award; Arianna, and Giustino (also recorded on HMU); the title role in Augusta Read Thomas's opera Ligeia, based on the life of Edgar Allen Poe, which was commissioned and conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich at his festival in Evian, France; and the dual roles of Dido / Sorceress in the Mark Morris Dance Company's production of Dido & Aeneas, produced for Bravo Television by Rhombus Media and recorded by CBC Records. This film won awards at the Banff Television Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival. In September 2000, Jennifer Lane reprised both roles with the Mark Morris Dance Group for Cal Performances at the University of California, Berkeley.

1999 was Jennifer Lane's debut season with the Metropolitan Opera, in productions of A. Schoenberg's Moses und Aron and Janacek's Katya Kabanova. She was recently presented by the Capella Cracoviensis in Cracow, Poland in a recital of American songs and in J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244). She was invited to perform Dido and the Sorceress with Capella Ministrers at the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Spain, having previously appeared as the Sorceress with Nigel Rogers in the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona. In the fall of 2003 she joined the San Francisco Opera Company, covering the role of Anne in Christopher Alden's production of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's The Mother of US All, and Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen.

Jennifer Lane's recent engagements include Johannes Brahms' Alto Rhapsody with the Lexington Symphony, the world premiere of Libby Larsen's Every Man Jack with Sonoma City Opera (role of Charmian London), G.F. Handel's Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra, Kenneth Slowik conducting, and performances throughout Spain with Capella Ministrers of Monteverdi's Orfeo (Messaggiera/Speranza). She has also just recorded Rameau's Pygmalion and G.F. Handel's Terpsicore with Concert Royal in New York.

Jennifer Lane has over 45 recordings on Harmonia Mundi USA, Naxos, Opus 111, CBC Records, Koch International, Newport Classic, Arabesque, Centaur, and PGM. PGM produced her solo CD's "Lagrime mie" and "The Summer of all Delights." Her solo disc for Koch, “The Pleasures & Follies of Love,” was chosen as disc of the month by the journal Alte Musik Aktuell in Germany. A new solo disc of French airs de cour is available at Magnatune. With conductor Robert Craft, she has recorded Igor Stravinsky's Threni, Oedipus Rex (Jocasta), A Sermon, a Narrative, and a Prayer, “Two Songs” by Hugo Wolf, arr. I. Stravinsky, and A. Schoenberg's Gurrelieder (Waldtaube) on Koch. All are now re-mastered and re-released by Naxos.

From September 1996 to 2005, Jennifer Lane was a member of the faculty of music at Stanford University, serving as Senior Lecturer in Voice. She has also produced and directed there several operatic productions, including a period-style production of Dido & Aeneas, mounted as the culminating event in the Music Department's 50th anniversary celebration, an evening of mostly 20th century one act operas, and, most recently, Mozart's The Magic Flute, and where her 17th century vocal and instrumental collegium musicum celebrated its third year by performing Shadwell & Dryden's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest, considered to be the first dramatic opera in English. She is currently Associate Professor of Music at the University of North Texas and has formerly held faculty positions at Stanford University and the University of Kentucky. She has taught master-classes at Old Dominion University, Mannes College, CW Post University, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Collegio Major Lluis Vives in Valencia, San Francisco Conservatory, and for the San Francisco Opera Young Artists Program. She is also on the faculty of the Lake Placid Institute, the International Baroque Institute at Longy, and the San Francisco Early Music Society Medieval/Renaissance and Baroque workshops.