Jennifer Aylmer
American soprano Jennifer Aylmer has quickly developed a sterling reputation for her beautiful voice, compelling stage portrayals, and sensitive musicianship. The New York Times has hailed her for her, "awesome accuracy," while The Chicago Sun-Times has recommended that listeners, "bask in the aural delight of Aylmer's dazzling shifts from regal command to cool insouciance and fatally attractive seduction." The 2007-2008 season sees her in the title role of Rodelinda with Portland Opera and as Gretel in Hansel und Gretel for her Atlanta Opera debut, a role she will also cover for the Metropolitan Opera. Upcoming concert engagements include appearances with Lyric Fest! in Philadelphia, the Sarasota Performing Arts series, Sing for Hope, SeFOS' "The Great Escape", and NYFOS' "No Song is Safe from Us" concert. Ms. Aylmer began her 2006-2007 season with her return to both New York City Opera as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and the Metropolitan Opera as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. Her season continued with Rosasharn in The Grapes of Wrath at Utah Opera, her debuts with the Phoenix Symphony as Gretel in concert performance of Hansel und Gretel, under the direction of Michael Christie, and with San Diego Symphony in Mozart's Exultate, Jubilate, Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras, and Mahler's Symphony No. 4, under the direction of Jahja Ling as well as a series of recitals in Boston with Baritone Randall Scarlata.Ms. Aylmer made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in the 2005-2006 season as Bella in the world premiere of Tobias Picker's An American Tragedy. The season also saw her as soloist with Prism Concerts in New York in Judas Maccabeus, and with the New York Festival of Song in a reprise of the popular "Fats and Fields" program. She then made her debuts with Utah Opera as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and as Rose Maurrant in Street Scene with Opera Theater of St. Louis, before concluding her season with Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Rochester Philharmonic, an all- Mozart concert with Pacific Symphony, and Fauré's Requiem, with Utah Symphony and Opera.
Career highlights in the opera arena include leading roles in Handel's Orlando, Don Pasquale, Le nozze di Figaro, Der Rosenkavalier, Handel's Flavio, Falstaff, and The Turn of the Screw with such companies as New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Orlando Opera, the Aspen Festival, Kentucky Opera, and Berkshire Opera. With Austin Lyric Opera she has performed both Gilda in Rigoletto and Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. As a member of the Houston Grand Opera studio she created the role of Amy in the world premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women. Equally accomplished in oratorio, concert, and an especially sought-after recitalist Ms. Aylmer has been a featured soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, the New York Festival of Song, the Aspen Festival Orchestra, and the Beijing Music Festival She sang Eurydice in Gluck's Orphée et Eurydice with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, opposite Ewa Podles, and during the summer of 2005 made her San Francisco debut singing Bernstein's Arias and Barcarolles with Michael Tilson Thomas. Jennifer Aylmer is a particularly gifted recitalist, and made her New York recital debut as the 2001 recipient of the Alice Tully Hall Vocal Arts Debut Recital from the Juilliard School and has been presented across the country by the Marilyn Horne Foundation.
A native of Long Island Ms. Aylmer is a graduate of Eastman School of Music and alumnus of the Julliard Opera Center. Her many honors and awards include a Career Grant from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the National Society of Arts and Letters and the Catherine Filene Shouse Career Grant from the Wolf Trap Opera Company. She has also received notable prizes from the Palm Beach Opera Competition, Opera Index, and the Oratorio Society of New York Competition.
www.jenniferaylmer.com
