Amanda Balestrieri, soprano
Soprano Amanda Balestrieri was born and educated in England, and brings an impressive list of credits from both sides of the Atlantic. She won an Open Scholarship and the William Ackroyd Foundation Scholarship to Jesus College, Oxford University, where she received her MA degree in German and French. She also received diplomas from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in voice, piano (Lloyd Hartley Memorial Prize), and violin. She studied privately with Marjorie Thomas of the Royal Academy of Music in London and spent a year in Milan, Italy, where she studied with Maria Luisa Cioni. She appeared as a soloist in Oxford and London and toured in Europe with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields under Neville Marriner, before moving to the United States.
Her U.S. credits include several appearances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, a performance at the 92nd Street Y in New York, and a broadcast on National Public Radio’s Performance Today. She has sung under the baton of Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, Leonard Slatkin, and Peter Phillips. The Washington Post has praised her “great intelligence and musicality” and her “deep emotional involvement, flawless style and precise diction” and described her voice as “unusually versatile,” “dazzling,” and “resplendent.” The New York Times praised the “clarity and shapeliness” of her voice, The Boston Globe referred to her singing as a “first-class vocal tournament.” The Albuqerque Journal praised her “radiant intelligence” and “luminous warmth.” The Santa Fe New Mexican described her singing as “compelling,” and the Times Union of Saratoga, New York, wrote: “Balestrieri’s voice was gorgeous, marked by the kind of breath control and fluidity that make for an ideal baroque singer…beautifully sung, with an almost sensual feel.”
Much in demand for her skills in baroque repertoire, Ms. Balestrieri received critical acclaim for her performances of Messiah with the Santa Fe Pro Musica and in New York with the famed St. Thomas Choir, for which she was praised in The New York Times, and for her appearance at the Maryland Handel Festival. Other notable performances have been several recitals at the Phillips Collection, most recently in 2010, Rameau’s opera Pigmalion with renowned French tenor Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, Bach’s Easter Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Santa Fe Pro Musica. Ms. Balestrieri has also appeared in numerous performances of French baroque repertoire with Opera Lafayette in Washington DC, and she was featured in a critically-acclaimed eighteenth-century Zarzuela with the New York Collegium and conductor Eduardo Lopez Banzo in New York and Boston. She performed Bach’s B Minor Mass with the New York Collegium and St. Thomas Choir, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Smithsonian Chamber Players, Messiah and St. John Passion at the Washington National Cathedral, Honegger’s King David, and Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light with Anonymous Four at the George Mason Center for the Performing Arts.
Ms. Balestrieri appeared with the National Symphony and Leonard Slatkin at the reopening of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, performed Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock on the Fortas Chamber Series in the Terrace Theater, and joined maestro Christopher Hogwood in a performance of Mozart’s Davide Penitente with the NSO at the Kennedy Center Mozart Festival. She made her New York debut with Concert Royal at Merkin and Florence Gould Halls, appearing as “La Paix” in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants with the New York Baroque Dance Company in New York, Princeton, and Lancaster Pennsylvania, and performed a program of Purcell at the Lincoln Center with the Four Nations Ensemble. Ms. Balestrieri has been a frequent guest of the Folger Consort, best known for her portrayal of Marjorie Gubbins in the baroque farce, The Dragon of Wantley, and has recorded with the American Bach Soloists for the Koch label, and with Ensemble Five/One and the Folger Consort. In 1999 she was nominated for a “Wammie” (awards given by the Washington Area Music Association) in the Best Classical Vocalist category.
Ms. Balestrier’s Denver area debut in October 2010 was described as “luminous” and “technically accomplished” by The Denver Post. Last season’s performances in the Denver area include Bach’s Non sa che sia dolore with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado (BCOC), Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with the Monteverdi Soloists, and programs of Purcell songs and New World baroque repertoire with BCOC. In addition to her appearances with the Boulder Bach Festival, the 2011-12 season features Ms. Balestrieri with The Pearl Ensemble in Denver, in recital for Early Music Colorado, with a new baroque ensemble in Boulder, and with BCOC in John Blowe’s Venus and Adonis.
