Janice Felty, mezzo-soprano
Janice Felty is recognized as a leading interpreter of contemporary music, having premiered, performed and recorded works by John Adams, Philip Glass, John Harbison, Lee Hoiby, Tod Machover, Judith Weir and Ellen Taffe Zwilich among others.
Her operatic appearances have included roles in standard repertory such as Mozart's Così fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos; and contemporary operas such as La Belle et la Bête, Orphée and The White Raven by Philip Glass in Lisbon and at the Lincoln Center Festival. She also premièred several roles in The Death of Klinghoffer by John Adams, performing the work in this country and in Europe and recording it for Nonesuch. She appeared in Francesca Zambello's production of Kurt Weill's Street Scene, presented by Houston Grand Opera and filmed at Theater des Westens, Berlin and in Peter Sellars’ film of Mozart's Così fan Tutte. Most recently she was seen as Baba the Turk in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress with Cantata Singers in Boston and as the Woman in the première of Philip Glass's The Sound of a Voice at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge and at the Court Theater in Chicago.
Ms Felty has performed Bach's Magnificat and Easter and Christmas Oratorios with Santa Fe Pro Musica, John Harbison's Mottetti di Montale at Tanglewood and elsewhere; Harbison's North and South at the 92nd Street Y in New York City; Zwilich's Passages and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire with New York Philomusica; Bernstein's Songfest with the Oregon Festival of American Music; Judith Weir's Consolations of Scholarship at Tanglewood and Cornell University; Bach's St. Matthew and St. John Passions and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Smithsonian Chamber Players; Galina Ustvolskaya's Symphony No. 4 with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and most recently Bach Cantatas with the Seattle Symphony under the baton of John Harbison.
Janice Felty has sung with the National Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Bargemusic, Aspen Music Festival, Theatre de la Monnaie, Teatro San Carlo, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera and Washington Opera among others.
Upcoming performances this season include a return to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the première of Steven Stucky's To Whom I Said Farewell, and Haydn's Arianna a Naxos with the Santa Fe Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Felty's recordings appear on the New World, Nonesuch, Bridge, Decca, Northeastern and CRI labels.
The Arizona native, after earning a degree in music education from the University of Arizona, won first place in the San Francisco Opera auditions, third place in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, a Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant and she apprenticed with San Francisco Opera. This opportunity to work with Kurt Herbert Adler was invaluable and she won the Kurt Herbert Adler Award.
After settling in Santa Fe, New Mexico, she branched into chamber music, specifically contemporary chamber music. With the première of John Harbison's Mottetti di Montale with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, she started a long and fruitful collaboration with that composer which exists to the present. She considers John Harbison "a consummate musician regarding all styles of music, and someone from whom I have learned a great deal."
Regarding her approach to singing she states: "I believe that singers have the opportunity and responsibility to convey text. Communicating text and the myriad nuances of emotion attached to it, is one of the aspects of singing that I most enjoy."
Living in Galisteo, a small village near Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband and their "spoiled" dog, Janice Felty enjoys hearing birds, seeing stars and working with her plants after the bustle and excitement of the cities in which she regularly performs. One of her favorite pastimes is backpacking, allowing her to see parts of the world not visible from a car or highway. She is very interested in other cultures and traditions and feels fortunate to have lived and taught music in Sudan, Papua New Guinea and Panama. She is the proud mother of a grown daughter and the fortunate second mom to her husband's four children and four grandchildren. "Life is good!"
