Soprano Katharine Dain performs opera, song, 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.
Katharine is a sought-after, sensitive recording artist. Her album Regards sur l’Infini (Messiaen, Delbos, Debussy, Dutilleux, and Saariaho) with pianist Sam Armstrong won the Edison Klassiek for Best Debut and was 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, featured works of Lili Boulanger, Karol Szymanowski, and Grażyna Bacewicz and was even more widely acclaimed. BBC Music Magazine named it CD of the Month in its category and called it “altogether a remarkable release: beautiful, intelligent and utterly heartfelt”. In September 2027, she released with Ragazze Quartet an album of commissioned works by women composers about women, They Have Waited Long Enough, about which Volkskrant said “Dain embodies these epic women with compassion, tension, and fire.”
Highlights of recent seasons include being named Artist-in-Residence with Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta; song recitals in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Doelen Rotterdam, and Concertgebouw Brugge; Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Contessa), Cosi fan tutte (Fiordiligi), 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. She will make her debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 2027 in the premiere of an orchestral realization of Lili Boulanger’s song cycle Clairières dans le ciel.
Jörg Widmann: Labyrinth IV
with the Boulez Ensemble
Conductor: Matthias Pintscher
They Have Waited Long Enough
a program of commissioned works by and about women for soprano and string quartet
pieces by Aftab Darvishi, Annelies van Parys, Calliope Tsoupaki, Meriç Artaç, Katharine Dain, Diamanda Dramm, Amarante Nat, and Saskia Venegas
with Ragazze Quartet
Richard Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder
Richard Wagner: Liebestod (Tristan und Isolde)
with BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Conductor: Antony Hermus
Well, one survives that, no matter how… If it hurt you, that is not what’s important. Everybody’s hurt. What is important, what corrals you, what bullwhips you, what drives you, torments you, is that you must find some way of using this to connect you with everyone else alive. This is all you ...
JANUARY :: roasted tomato salsa. At this time last year, I went to Mexico for a much-needed break and a visit with my sister after a prolonged period of intense stress and overwork. It was an amazing trip. It was also the last time I could pretend to myself that my increasing anxiety was just...
Just after noon on November 6th, 2024, I beeped myself into the Ghent opera house and trudged up a flight of stairs with my head lowered, trying to hide my red eyes and puffy face. The previous day’s piano dress rehearsal had gone very well. Later, we’d had a farewell dinner for Amandine...
© Katharine Dain 2022