28
June
2020
Rameau: Dardanus
Cupid/Phrygian Woman
Trinity Wall Street
Katonah, NY
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts
Making her mark as an “especially impressive” (New York Times) soprano, Australian/American Nola Richardson has won First Prize in all three major American competitions focused on the music of J.S. Bach (Bethlehem Bach, 2016; Audrey Rooney Bach, 2018; Grand Rapids Symphony Linn Maxwell Keller Award, 2019). These honors have catapulted her to the forefront of Baroque ensembles and orchestras around the country, where she has been praised for her “astonishing balance and accuracy,” “crystalline diction,” and “natural-sounding ease” (Washington Post).
Nola’s 2019-2020 season will feature her debuts with the Seattle Symphony (Handel Messiah), Philharmonia Baroque (Bach Coffee Cantata), Tenet (in concert with American violinist Hilary Hahn), Mineola Choral Society (Haydn Creation) and an appearance at the Leipzig Bach Festival 2020 as a soloist with the Bethlehem Bach Society. She will make her stage debut next summer at the Caramoor Festival in Rameau’s Dardanus, directed by Julian Wachner and James Darrah. Return solo engagements include the American Bach Soloists, American Classical Orchestra (Scarlatti Christmas Cantata), Colorado Bach Ensemble, Madison Bach Ensemble, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Seraphic Fire, and the Clarion Music Society.
The 2018-2019 season featured debuts with the Grand Rapids Symphony (Bach Mass in A), the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado (Bach Cantata 51; Monteverdi Orfeo), and appearances with the American Classical Orchestra (Bach Cantata 147), Baltimore Choral Arts Society (Brahms Requiem), and the Master Chorale of South Florida (Haydn Creation). Her debut that season at the Kennedy Center with Opera Lafayette (Fraarte in Handel Radamisto) drew praise from the Washington Post for her “particularly appealing freshness and directness.”
Ms. Richardson has also made appearances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, the Colorado Symphony, and the Madison Bach Musicians (Belinda in Dido and Aeneas); sang the premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s Carroll in Numberland (alongside soprano Dawn Upshaw) at Tanglewood; and gave a recital at the National Cathedral with Baroque trumpeter Josh Cohen and ACRONYM. The San Francisco Classical Voice cited her “lusciously polished… exemplary impassioned singing” in performances as Maria Magdalena in Handel’s La Resurrezione and a program of French Baroque music with the American Bach Soloists.
Ms. Richardson has sung the roles of Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Madame Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor) with Bel Cantanti Opera, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Maryland Concert Opera, Gianetta in L’elisir D’amore with Emerald City Opera, and gave a “standout” performance (Opera News) as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Clarion Music Society.
As a dedicated ensemble and chamber musician, Nola frequently appears with GRAMMY® nominated professional choirs Seraphic Fire (with whom she has performed solos at the Aspen Music Festival under conductors Robert Spano and Xian Zhang), the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and the Clarion Music Society, with whom she went on an international tour of Handel Semele with The English Concert and Harry Bicket.
An Australian by birth, Nola has spent most of her life in the US. She holds a BM from Illinois Wesleyan University and dual MM degrees in Vocal Performance and Early Music from the Peabody Conservatory. She was a young artist with the Boston Early Music Festival, a vocal fellow at Tanglewood, a Marc and Eva Stern Fellow at Songfest, and most recently, a Carmel Bach Festival Virginia Best Adams Fellow in 2019. Nola attended the Institute of Sacred Music Program and is currently finishing her DMA at Yale on a full scholarship.
March 13-17, 2019 Various Venues in South Florida
March 13-17, 2019 Various Venues in South Florida
March 13-17, 2019 Various Venues in South Florida
March 13-17, 2019 Various Venues in South Florida
March 13-17, 2019 Various Venues in South Florida
February 15-18. Various venues in CA
February 15-18. Various venues in CA
February 15-18. Various venues in CA
February 15-18. Various venues in CA
February 5 & 7
St. Matthew Passion with Seraphic Fire
“Among a constellation of Seraphic Fire’s best singers in the solo recitatives and arias, a new member stood out. Nola Richardson’spure, vibratoless soprano brought dramatic expressivity to “Blute nur, du liebes Herz” (Bleed on, dear heart) as well as fire in her description of the horrors of Golgotha.” -Lawrence Budmen, South Florida Classical Review, February 17, 2018
Magnificat with American Classical Orchestra
“C.P.E.’s “Magnificat” is something else, a masterpiece in its own right, which looks as resolutely to the future as his father’s does at times to the past. Mr. Crawford and his forces gave it a good outing, with an especially fine turn by Nola Richardson, a soprano.” – James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, December 8, 2017
Dixit Dominus with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society
”Soprano soloists Nola Richardson and Julie Bosworth offered bright, well-focused tone and supple phrasing in the Handel work.” – Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun, November 1, 2017
Die Zauberflöte with the Clarion Music Society
“In a supporting cast with no weak links, the vocal standouts were the three “firsts”: Nola Richardson (First Lady), Ty Green (First Boy) and James Kennerley (First Armed Man).” – David Shengold, Opera News, June 2017
“A Weekend in Paris” with the American Bach Soloists
“That Marais chaconne, along with some lusciously polished singing by soprano Nola Richardson, suave solo work by flutist and piccolo player Janet See and violin leader Elizabeth Blumenstock, and the incisive contributions of the American Bach Choir, among other things, were the musical equivalents of full-color photographs to revisit and cherish later.” “Richardson upped the ante with her precisely drawn but liquid coloratura conversations with the woodwinds” “The Vivaldi quotations remained perhaps inevitably odd to listeners who know the music only too well. But when Richardsonreturned for another articulate and supple exchange, this time with violinist Blumenstock, the old felt remade in a new image” “The Mondonville “Grand Motet” came alive with musical scene painting, from an early march to the first grave and noble chorus to the swaying and natural figuration of Richardson’s exemplary, impassioned singing.” -Steven Winn, San Francisco Classical Voice, February 14. 2017
“Elegantly sung in Latin here by soprano Nola Richardson, these coloratura passages were impressive, to say the least. Though I’ve heard Nola Richardson before, especially with ABS, with whom she was a charming Galatea in 2015 in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, this time around Nola Richardson was absolutely astounding. Her voice is angelic in tone, yet full of emotional intensity. Richardson’s technical handling of the coloratura passages in this work by Corrette was impeccable. The result was stunningly beautiful.”
“Once again, however, the show was stolen by soprano Nola Richardson, who took the musical momentum created by her colleagues and redoubled it in dramatic fashion. How I would love to hear Nola Richardson in a leading role in an opera by either Jean-Baptiste Lully or Jean-Philippe Rameau! It’s regrettable that she is not in the cast for the forthcoming Philharmonia Baroque performance in April of Rameau’s Le Temple de la Gloire.” -James Roy MacBean, The Berkeley Daily Planet, February 17, 2017
B Minor Mass with Master Chorale of South Florida
“The soloists, most of them familiar to local audiences from appearances with Seraphic Fire, provided the most satisfying musical moments of the afternoon. Greenleaf
and Richardson offered a beautiful “Christe eleison,” with their voices blending ideally. Greenleaf’s high notes have an unusual purity, and Richardson has a lovely instrument and a fine command of Baroque ornament.” -Greg Stepanich, Palm Beach Arts Paper, November 29, 2016
Download Nola Richardson’s Press Kit HERE!
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