Meredith Arwady
Vocalists
— Contralto
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Manager: Angela Maria Blasi
Management Territory: Worldwide
"Meredith Arwady made a strong impression as Erda, looking every inch the earth-mother as she rose from the deep, draped with children, and with a plummy, true contralto voice to match." —Hugo Shirley, Musicalcriticism.com 2010
“…and contralto Meredith Arwady - a former Merola star who has already made a stellar contribution to this fall's "Trittico" - sang resplendently as Marie's discovered aunt, the Marquise of Berkenfeld.” —Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, October 2009
"Previously seen as “Zita” in this season’s production of Gianni Schicchi, contralto Meredith Arwady was superb as Marie’s soon-to-be-exposed mother, “The Marquise of Berkenfeld”. "The volatility of Arwady’s lower register is truly amazing and the overall stretch of her range is powerful and warm. In view of the optionals, she was given the perfect moment to throw in the opening measures of Dalilah’s “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix”. —Sean Martinfield, San Francisco Sentinel, October 2009
About
Contralto Meredith Arwady begins the 2010-2011 season with the role of Auntie in Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Peter Grimes.Ms Arwady will also join the Canadian Opera Company on their Brooklyn Academy of Music tour, with roles in Stravinsky’s Nightingale and Berceuses du Chat. Dallas Opera audiences will hear her in Mussorsky’s Boris Godunov in the spring of 2011, with Cornelia in Giulio Cesare at Fort Worth Opera Festival to follow. Ms. Arwady will end the season with the title role of Vivaldi’s Griselda in a new Peter Sellars production at . . . the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2011. On the concert stage, she will perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Edo de Waart and the Milwaukee Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the University of Michigan and will give a song recital at the Curtis Insitute of Music.
Ms. Arwady began the 2009/2010 season at the San Francisco Opera, appearing as the Abbess in Suor Angelica and Zita in Gianni Schicchi.. San Francisco audiences also heard her in the role of Marquise of Berkenfield in Laurent Pelly’s production of La Fille du Regiment, a role she also recently performed at the Metropolitan Opera this season. Ms. Arwady will be making her debut as Erda in a new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Oper Frankfurt She appeared on the concert stage this fall with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Loren Maazel conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, followed by De Falla’s El Amor Brujo with West Michigan Symphony, and Messiah with the Washington National Symphony.
In the 2008-2009 season, Ms. Arwady debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Pasqualita in John Adam’s Dr. Atomic, and made her European debut at the Oper Frankfurt as Ulrica in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera as well as her English National Opera debut in Dr. Atomic. Ms. Arwady will sing in Tippett’s , A Child of our Time, as part of Jessye Norman’s Honor! Festival at Carnegie Hall. She will make another debut with the Houston Grand Opera, this season, in the world premiere of André Previn’s opera, A Brief Encounter and will join Chautauqua Opera for Menotti’s The Consul this summer.
Engagements for the 2007-2008 season have included: Beethoven Symphony No.9 and Bach Cantata No. 7 with the Seattle Symphony, Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Houston Symphony, Elgar’s Sea Pictures with the Kalamazoo Symphony, as well as recitals in New York and Chicago sponsored by the Marilyn Horne Foundation.
Ms. Arwady has also appeared as Schwertleite in Die Walküre, Meg Page in The Merry Wives of Windso, Madame Flora in The Medium, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Mrs. Peachum in Die Dreigroschenoper, both Mother and The Square Root of 7 in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Madame de Quimper Karadec in La Vie Parisienne. and in L’incoronazione di Poppea.
Ms. Arwady is a winner of the 2004 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the 2005 Kirsten Flagstad Award, presented by the George London Foundation for a singer with a promising Wagnerian career, First Prize winner of both the 2004 Licia Albanese/Puccini Competition, the inaugural Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists in 2002, and a 2007 Richard Tucker Career Grant. As a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Opera Center ensemble, Ms. Arwady made her mainstage debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2005, as Tisbe in La Cenerentola conducted by Bruno Campanella, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, and She-Ancient in Sir Michael Tippett’s A Midsummer Marriage, both conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.
