Kiera Duffy
 Winner of a 2008 Sullivan Foundation grant and a finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, American soprano Kiera Duffy is recognized for the agility, ease, and gleaming quality of her high soprano, and is enjoying a flourishing concert and operatic career in repertoire that spans from Handel and Praetorius to the new sounds of Elliott Carter and John Zorn.
Kiera Duffy opens the 2007-08 season with performances of Despina in Così fan tutte and Tebaldo in Don Carlo with Patricia Racette, Johan Botha, and James Morris at the Tangelwood Music Festival – James Levine conducts both performances. In her native Pennsylvania, she sings a concert at the Kimmel Center to celebrate the bicentennial of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and returns to the Opera Company of Philadelphia as the Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel. For the holiday season Kiera Duffy sings Praetorius’ Christmas Vespers with the early music ensemble, Apollo’s Fire, and Messiah with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra. She debuts at Opera Naples as Despina in a revival of the Ira Siff production, and at Tulsa Opera as Ellen in Lakmé. Concert appearances include a return to the Palm Beach Symphony for Beethoven Mass in C, debuts with both the California Symphony and the Reno Philharmonic as soprano soloist in Carmina Burana, and chamber music by Ravel and Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Metropolis Ensemble at New York’s newest destination: TheTimesCenter. Her return to Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Ghita in Vicente Martín y Soler’s rarely performed opera Una Cosa Rara ends the season.
Last summer, Kiera Duffy was seen at Tanglewood as Rose in the U.S. staged premiere of Carter’s opera What Next?, conducted by James Levine. Critics called her performance “virtuosic” (New York Times), “silvery” (Boston Globe), and “gleaming” (The New Yorker). She sang Mozart’s Requiem with both the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, in celebration of the newly re-opened and renovated Tabernacle, and with Madeleine Choir School and members of the Utah Symphony; Messiah with the Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra, marking her debut at Carnegie Hall; made her company debuts at Opera Company of Philadelphia as Clorinda (La Cenerentola), and at Arizona Opera as Fatmé in Grétry’s Zémire et Azor; and sang performances of Handel’s Dixit Dominus which were recorded for future release with Apollo’s Fire. Other highlights of this busy season included John Zorn’s monodrama La Machine de l’Être for New York City Opera’s VOX Showcase, and Pascal Dusapin’s To God at the Spoleto Festival USA.
In the previous season, Kiera Duffy’s concert appearances included Mozart’s Mass in c minor with both the Omaha Symphony and the Madeleine Choir School; Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and Choral Fantasy with the Utah Symphony; Dixit Dominus at Merkin Hall; Mozart’s concert aria No, no, che non sei capace and the role of Miss Silverpeal (The Impresario)with the Palm Beach Symphony; and the premiere of George Andoniadis’ God’s World with the Manhattan Choral Ensemble at Columbia University. She was featured in New York City Opera’s VOX in Justine Chen’s The Maiden Tower and William Kraft’s Red Azalea, and later traveled to Munich to compete in the internationally recognized ARD Competition. Other highlights of the season included scenes from Die Zauberflöte at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis; Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Camerata New York Orchestra; a recital featuring Schumann’s Dichterliebe and works of Schoenberg and Berg with the Washington University Liederabend Series; and Bach’s. St. Matthew Passion with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Born in Philadelphia, Kiera Duffy was an accomplished pianist before pursuing singing and holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College. She is the recipient of numerous awards and recognition from such esteemed organizations as the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition, the Young Concert Artists International Competition, and Astral Artistic Services. As a member of Central City Opera’s Bonfils-Stanton Young Artist Program and Opera Theatre of St. Louis’ Gerdine Young Artist Program, Ms. Duffy covered the roles of Gilda (Rigoletto), Madame Mao (Nixon in China) and Elvira (L’italiana in Algeri), in addition to performing the roles of the Lay Sister in Suor Angelica, Fatmé in Zémire et Azor, and Isabel and Madeline in Henry Mollicone’s The Face on the Barroom Floor. Opera Theatre of St. Louis awarded her the Richman Memorial Award in 2004 and, in 2005, a special MacAllister Award honoring the memory of Susannah Kilmer.
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