Krista River, mezzo-soprano

Winner, 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition

www.kristariver.com

Praised by The New York Times for possessing a “shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress,” mezzo-soprano Krista River demonstrates these distinctive qualities in all of her performances, whether it is on the operatic stage, in an art-song recital or in front of a symphony orchestra.  Ms. River is a winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and is also a 2007 grant recipient from the Sullivan Foundation.

Ms. River’s 2008-2009 season features performances with the North Carolina Symphony of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, with Boston Cecilia singing Bach’s B Minor Mass, with the Harrisburg Symphony in the title role of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Iolanthe, and with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra singing Remembrance by Jean Belmont.  Ms. River appears with Emmanuel Music in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as well as on their Schumann series performing Sechs Gesänge, Op. 107.  Other performances include recitals and chamber music in Cold Spring Harbor, NY, and with the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society.

Highlights of Ms. River’s 2007-2008 season included her solo recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall where she performed the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s Turning Back, the role of Cherubino in a semi-staged production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with the North Carolina Symphony, performances with the Handel & Haydn Society of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, and with the Harrisburg Symphony in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  Ms. River also performed the role of Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Mercury Baroque in Houston.

Other recent opera roles include Annio in La clemenza di Tito with Opera Boston(about which the Boston Herald said “…River offered perhaps the most purely delightful singing of the evening”), Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera Aperta, the Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Santa Fe Symphony, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Crested Butte Music Festival, Nancy in Albert Herring with Red House Opera, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with Opera Southwest and Anna I in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Intermezzo Opera.  She has also performed concert versions of Handel’s Orlando (Medoro) with Boston's Emmanuel Music and Berg’s Wozzeck (Margret) with the New England Philharmonic.

Recent orchestral engagements include Duruflé’s Requiem with the York Symphony, Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony, Dvorak’s Requiem with the Florida Orchestra, de Falla's El Amor Brujo with the Boston Symphony, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Schumann’s Genoveva, and Bach’s St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music, and Telemann’s St. Matthew Passion with the Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque Ensemble.

Krista River has performed chamber music as a guest artist at John Harbison’s Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Music from Salem, the Saco River Festival, Meeting House Music Festival on Cape Cod, and the Portland Chamber Music Festival in Maine.  A contemporary music advocate, Ms. River has given the world premieres of several new works by numerous composers including Howard Frazin, Thomas Schnauber, Herschel Garfein and Paul Preusser.  She created the role of Genevieve in Brian Hulse’s chamber opera The Game at the Kennedy Center, as part of their Millennium Stage series, and she also created the role of the Sprit of Boston in Scott Wheeler’s one-act opera The Construction of Boston, recorded live with Boston Cecilia and released in March 2008 on Naxos Records.

Krista River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College.  She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.