Soprano Katharine Dain performs opera, chamber music, orchestral repertoire, and oratorio on international stages. She is also a writer, a curator of unusual programs, and a probing collaborator on artistic projects of many kinds.
Her album Regards sur l’Infini (Messiaen, Delbos, Debussy, Dutilleux, and Saariaho) with pianist Sam Armstrong won the 2021 Edison Klassiek Award for Best Debut. Since its release, it has been lavishly praised in the press: “fearless … beautifully controlled … exquisite” (Gramophone); “a stunning album … ecstatic pianism, stratospheric outbursts, sultry sighs and pure beauty … breathtaking” (NRC). The duo’s second album together, Forget This Night, will be released in November 2023 and will feature works of Lili Boulanger, Karol Szymanowski, and Grażyna Bacewicz.
Highlights of recent seasons include being named 2022-23 Artist-in-Residence with Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta; song recitals in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Doelen Rotterdam, and Concertgebouw Brugge; Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Konstanze) and Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Hungary, and Ecuador; appearances with the Dutch National Opera, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, and BBC Scottish and Welsh Symphony Orchestras; and chamber music at numerous festivals throughout Europe and North America.
Rick van Veldhuizen: unde imber et ignes
with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Manoj Kamps
Mozart: Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi)
with the Orchestra of the 18th Century
Conductor: Manoj Kamps
Director: Lisenka Heijboer-Castañon
The Netherlands and Belgium
(see complete tour information here)
Stravinsky: Pulcinella
with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft
Stunned that Kenneth Montgomery died yesterday. Many knew him much longer and better than I did—but I feel so lucky to have known him for a few years, to have worked and learned and sung in his circle of light for a short while; and I feel heartbroken that I didn’t have more time, that we al...
Hi from a Rotterdam kitchen table strewn with empty coffee cups, scores of Polish songs I’m learning, and a laptop open to an article about airborne missiles (Russian? Ukrainian? deliberate? accidental?) killing Polish civilians. Life has felt kind of high-stakes lately. Just me? I don’t think i...
The body: The singer’s instrument The body: Recent Covid prison, achy, wracked with coughs The body: What I thought I was escaping by spending so many teenage hours making music, slipping into a plane of sound that was higher or more worthy (I thought) than my own solidity, despite the burgund...
© Katharine Dain 2022