Joyce DiDonato

Kansas-born mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato enchants audiences and has been acclaimed by critics around the world. She has soared to the top of the industry, both as a performer and fierce advocate for the arts, gaining international prominence in operas by Handel and Mozart, as well as through her wide-ranging and acclaimed discography. She is also widely celebrated for her appearances in the bel canto repertoire.

The 2020/21 season began with performances of Joyce DiDonato’s Baroque-inspired programme My Favourite Things with il pomo d’oro in Bayreuth and Valencia, as well as a recital for the Met Stars Live in Concert series. Further season highlights include performances of her In My Solitude programme with Craig Terry in Oviedo, Madrid and Barcelona, which she is also touring throughout Europe this year. She is delighted to be an artist ambassador in partnership with the classical music streaming service Primephonic.

Joyce DiDonato was Carnegie Hall’s 2019/20 perspectives artist, appearing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti and performing Schubert’s Winterreise in recital with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Her most recent roles on the operatic stage include the title role in Agrippina at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Didon (Les Troyens) at the Vienna State Opera, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon and Adalgisa (Norma) at the Met, Sister Helen (Dead Man Walking) at the Teatro Real in Madrid and the Barbican Centre in London and the title role in Rossini’s Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera and at Covent Garden, where she also appeared as Charlotte (Werther).

Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, she has held residencies at Carnegie Hall and the Barbican Centre, toured extensively in the USA, South America, Europe and Asia and appeared as the guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other concert highlights include the Berlin Philharmonic under Simon Rattle, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under John Eliot Gardiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the National Youth Orchestra USA under Antonio Pappano.

An exclusive recording artist with Erato /Warner Classics, her award-winning discography includes Agrippina, which won the opera recording category at the Gramophone Awards 2020, Les Troyens, which won the recording (complete opera) category at the 2018 International Opera Awards, the opera award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards and Gramophone’s recording of the year. Other recent albums include Songplay, which won best classical solo vocal album at the 2019 Grammy Awards, In War and Peace: Harmony Through Music, which won best recital at the 2017 Gramophone Awards, and her Grammy-winning Diva Divo. Other honours include Gramophone Awards for artist and recital of the year and an induction into the Gramophone hall of fame.