Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American spinto soprano who was the first African American soprano to receive international acclaim. From 1961 she began a long association with the Metropolitan Opera, where she was the first African American to be a leading performer. She regularly appeared at the world's major opera houses, including the Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and La Scala; at La Scala, she was also the first African American to sing a leading role. She was particularly renowned for her performances of the title role in Verdi's Aida.
Renée Lynn Fleming is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards and has won five times. In June 2023, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that Fleming will be one of the five artists recognized at the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors. Other notable honors won by Fleming have included the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French government, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music. Unusual among artists whose careers began in opera, Fleming has achieved name recognition beyond the classical music world. In May, 2023, Fleming was appointed by the World Health Organization as a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health.
Kathleen Deanna Battle is an American operatic soprano known for her distinctive vocal range and tone. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Battle initially became known for her work within the concert repertoire through performances with major orchestras during the early and mid-1970s. She made her opera debut in 1975. Battle expanded her repertoire into lyric soprano and coloratura soprano roles during the 1980s and early 1990s, until her eventual dismissal from the Metropolitan Opera in 1994. She later has focused on recording and the concert stage. After a 22-year absence from the Met, Battle performed a concert of spirituals at the Metropolitan Opera House in November 2016.
Nikki Einfeld is a Canadian born Lyric Coloratura Soprano.
Malin Hartelius is a Swedish soprano who performs regularly with conductors such as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Ton Koopman, Riccardo Chailly, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Peter Schreier, Herbert Blomstedt, and Frans Brüggen. She has collaborated with orchestras like the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Concentus Musicus Wien.
Susanna Andersson is a Swedish soprano and the winner of the 2003 Guildhall School of Music and Drama's Gold Medal Competition. Her debut performance was in 2005 and she played Zerlina in the Grange Park Opera’s staging of Don Giovanni.
Arianna Zukerman is an American lyric soprano who has performed with some of the world's finest orchestras and opera companies. Her voice was described in The Washington Post as "remarkable" combining the "range, warmth and facility of a Rossini mezzo with shimmering, round high notes and exquisite pianissimos."
Frieda Hempel was a German lyric coloratura soprano singer in operatic and concert work who had an international career in Europe and the United States.
Jeanette Scovotti is an American coloratura soprano.
Gail Robinson was an American operatic soprano who sang with many of the world's leading opera companies during the 1970s and 1980s. She spent most of her career singing lyric coloratura roles at the Metropolitan Opera. After her performance career ended she taught singing to young artists and also directed the Metropolitan Opera's Young Artist Program for over ten years. Upon leaving the Met, she joined the voice faculty at the University of Kentucky.
Dawn Kotoski is an American operatic soprano who has a substantial international opera career. She began her career at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City during the late 1980s singing lighter lyric soprano and soubrette roles. She joined the Vienna State Opera for the 1993–1994 season and since then her career has been centered mostly in Europe. She is the wife of tenor Neil Shicoff.
Mariella Adani is an Italian classical soprano who had an active career in operas, concerts, and recitals from the 1950s through the 1980s. She has sung under the musical direction of Vittorio Gui, Carlo Maria Giulini, Nino Sanzogno, Oliviero De Fabritiis, and Peter Maag and under the directors Sandro Bolchi, Franco Zeffirelli Luchino Visconti, and Walter Felsenstein. A light lyric soprano, she has particularly excelled in the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioachino Rossini. She has also been admired for her performances in Baroque opera. Retired from the stage, she now devotes her time to teaching singing.
Simona Houda-Šaturová is a Slovak classical soprano who has had an active international career performing in operas, concerts, and recitals since the early 1990s. In 2001, she was honored with a Thalia Award and in 2007 she won the Charlotte and Walter Hamel Award for outstanding vocal achievement. She has worked at many of the world's best opera houses and concert stages, singing under such conductors as Rolf Beck, Jiří Bělohlávek, Sylvain Cambreling, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Christoph Eschenbach, John Fiore, Ádám Fischer, Christopher Hogwood, Manfred Honeck, Sir Neville Marriner, Tomáš Netopil, and Helmuth Rilling among others.
Beverly Hoch is an American coloratura soprano and music educator who has had an active performance career in operas, concerts, and on recordings since the late 1970s. She has been teaching at Texas Woman's University since 2007.
Ying Fang is a Chinese operatic soprano. A principal soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, she won the Golden Bell Award at the Guangdong Singing Competition in China in 2009, first prize at the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition in 2013, and the Lincoln Center Segal Award in 2015. Her performances have been featured on the television program Great Performances at the Met and in movie theaters for the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD. In 2015 Opera News stated that "Ying Fang sings with exquisite simplicity and directness. The twenty-eight-year-old soprano never forces her sound or indulges in coloratura 'flash.' She is incapable of vulgarity; her dignity is unshakeable, and her powers of persuasion are sovereign."
Heather Engebretson is a Chinese-American operatic soprano who made a career mostly in Europe. Based at German opera ensembles for several years, she has worked freelance from 2017, and widened her repertoire from coloratura roles to leading characters such as Puccini's Madama Butterfly. She has been praised for her convincing acting as well as the expressiveness of her lyric voice, with performances including the Royal Opera House in London, the Bolshoi Theatre and Oper Frankfurt.
Heidi Stober is an American operatic soprano who has performed leading roles in major opera houses internationally, including the Dutch National Opera, the Garsington Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the Municipal Theatre of Santiago, the Semperoper, and the Vienna State Opera. She has been particularly active with the Houston Grand Opera where she has performed in more than a dozen operas since 2004, including the world premieres of Daniel Catán's Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies (2004), Mark Adamo's Lysistrata (2005), and Ricky Ian Gordon's The House without a Christmas Tree (2017). She has also performed in more than ten operas with the San Francisco Opera since 2010. Since 2008 she has been a resident artist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin where she has primarily performed roles from the lyric soprano repertoire. Also active as a concert soprano on the international stage, she has performed with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest among other orchestras. She is particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of George Frideric Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Rosl Schwaiger was an Austrian operatic coloratura soprano. She was a member of the Vienna State Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper, known for singing Mozart roles such as Blonde, Susanna and Zerlina. She appeared at European opera houses and festivals and was especially popular at the Salzburg Festival, where she appeared for decades in opera and sacred concerts.
Laurel Hurley was an American soprano who had an active performance career in the mid 20th century. She performed a diverse repertoire from musical theatre, operetta and opera; encompassing roles in the lyric soprano and coloratura soprano repertoire. While most often heard in works from the standard opera canon by composers like Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi, she was not afraid to tackle unusual works; performing in the United States premieres of Thomas Arne's Comus, Gluck's Paride ed Elena, and Darius Milhaud's Médée. Her performances and recordings in operas such as Bellini's La sonnambula and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and Rossini's La Cenerentola and The Barber of Seville contributed to the Bel canto revival movement of the 1950s.
Monika Buczkowska is a Polish operatic soprano, based in Germany at the Oper Frankfurt. Her repertoire, ranging from Baroque opera to contemporary music, includes especially Mozart roles such as Susanna and Pamina.
