JENNIFER RIVERA

Mezzo-soprano JENNIFER RIVERA has rapidly been earning recognition as a superb lyric mezzosoprano in both the United States and abroad. Her recent European debut as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito with the Teatro Regio di Torino directed by Graham Vick and conducted by Roberto Abaddo has led to future European engagements, including a reprisal of the production at the Teatro Communale di Bologna in 2011. While still a student at Juilliard, Ms. Rivera was invited to join the roster of the New York City Opera, and after winning their prestigious Debut Artist of the Year award, went on to sing several roles with the company, including Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lazuli in L’Etoile, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and, Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina. Praised repeatedly by the New York Times for her “radiant mezzo soprano” (Elmer Gantry) , her “warm dark tone” (Barbiere), and “fresh ready singing” (Hansel), her voice has also been described by the Times as being “dark, musical, and very agile” (Cenerentola) and possessing “richness, ease, and exactness” (L’Etoile).

Ms. Rivera’s future engagements include Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Pacific and Opera Tampa, Cenerentola with the Florida Grand Opera, and Ines in Donizetti’s Maria Padilla with the Washington Concert Opera. She will make her French debut in 2010 as Cecilio in a new production of Lucio Silla with Opéra Nantes, which will also reprise in Angers and Rennes.

Ms. Rivera’s concert work has included recitals with the Marilyn Horne Foundation in several venues throughout the U. S., a concert with Ms. Horne at Carnegie Hall, Hiller’s The Destruction of Jerusalem with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall, Mozart’s Mass in C and Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Berkshire Choral Festival, and The Mephisto Project with the Opéra Français de New York.

A native of California currently residing in New York, Ms. Rivera attended Boston University for her undergraduate degree and Juilliard for her Master’s degree. She was the first place winner of the 2002 Eastern Regional Division for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, going on to compete as a National Semi-Finalist, and has received recognition and awards from numerous other sources, including Spain’s Operalia Competition, the George London Foundation, the Joyce Dutka Arts Competition, the Licia Albanese Puccini Competition Foundation, the Opera Index Competition, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the Juilliard School, where she was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Shoshana Foundation Career Grant.

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