Carnegie Hall

(NEW YORK, NY; September 9, 2024)—Mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato returns to Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing for her popular series of master classes for young professional opera singers from Thursday, October 10 through Saturday, October 12, 2024. Soprano Bridget Esler, mezzo-soprano Michelle Mariposa, tenor Ben Reisinger, and bass Robert Ellsworth Feng have been selected to participate in this year’s set of master classes. Collaborative pianists Joel Harder and Justina Lee return to accompany the singers and provide additional coaching and support during the week.

In addition to being open to the public, the master classes will be streamed live for opera lovers everywhere on Carnegie Hall’s YouTube channel and medici.tv. Additional private sessions are planned for the participants on topics including breath control, audition tips, and career management.  

About the Artist
“The staggering, joyful artistry of Joyce DiDonato reminds us that in any generation there are a few giants. Joyce is not only a great, brave and inspiring artist – one of the finest singers of our time- but she is also a transformative presence in the arts. Those who know her repertoire are in awe of her gifts, and those who know nothing of it are instantly engaged. Joyce sings and the world is suddenly brighter. She compels us to listen actively, to hear things anew.” Jake Heggie, Gramophone

Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to The Times, Joyce has towered to the top of the industry as a performer, a producer, and a fierce advocate for the arts. With a repertoire spanning over four centuries, a varied and highly acclaimed discography, and industry-leading projects, her artistry has defined what it is to be a singer in the 21st century.

Joyce’s signaturely varied 2024–25 season includes a return to Teatro Real Madrid for Handel’s Theodora, a European recital tour with Craig Terry featuring performances at Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Athens Megaron, and Palau de la Musica de Valencia. In concert, Joyce continues her celebrated musical partnership with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and makes her debut with The Norwegian National Opera Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. In December 2024, Joyce joins forces with Dallas-based acapella group ‘Kings Return’ for a festive tour around the USA. An intensive residency with the Dortmund Konzerthaus in the spring features the world premiere of a new song cycle by Rachel Portman, as well as her concert debut in Handel’s Jeptha. To end the season, Joyce premieres a highly anticipated new work by Kevin Puts for the Bregenz Festival. Written for Joyce and the Grammy Award-winning string trio, ‘TimeForThree,’ it features the poetry of Emily Dickinson.

In September 2024, Joyce was honoured to have been awarded the 14th ever Concertgebouw Prize for her exceptional contribution to the artistic profile of the Concertgebouw.

Recent highlights include opening The Metropolitan Opera’s 2023 season performing her signature role of Sister Helen in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, returning later in the season to revive her wildly acclaimed “Virginia Woolf” in Kevin Puts’ The Hours. The 23–24 season also saw Joyce touring and recording Dido & Aeneas with Il Pomo d’Oro and the Grammy Award-winning SONGPLAY. Concerts with her own Kansas City Symphony, in Istanbul, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and at Carnegie Hall she continued her annual, in-demand Master Class Series. She concluded her season by wrapping up her ground-breaking 3-year project, EDEN, touring it to Asia, South America and Europe. Seen by more than 15 million people, EDEN traveled to 50 cities, won numerous awards, and included over 3,500 children in its ground-breaking educational activities. Streamed in Beijing, filmed in Ancient Olympia and available to watch now on Carnegie Hall+, it will also be broadcast on Medici TV this season.

On the operatic stage, Joyce’s recent roles include Agrippina at The Metropolitan Opera and in a new production at the Royal Opera House, Didon in Les Troyens at the Wiener Staatsoper; Sesto in Cendrillon and Adalgisa in Norma at The Metropolitan Opera; Agrippina in concert with Il Pomo d’Oro under Maxim Emelyanchev; Sister Helen in Dead Man Walking at the Teatro Real Madrid and London’s Barbican Centre; Semiramide at the Bavarian State Opera and Royal Opera House, and Charlotte in Werther at the Royal Opera House.

Much in demand on the concert and recital circuit, Joyce has held residencies at Carnegie Hall and at London’s Barbican Centre, toured extensively in the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia and appeared as guest soloist at the BBC’s Last Night of the Proms. Other concert highlights include the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of the USA under Sir Antonio Pappano.

An exclusive recording artist with Warner Classics/Erato, Joyce’s expansive discography includes the highly celebrated Les Troyens (winning Gramophone’s coveted Recording of the Year) and Handel’s Agrippina (Gramophone’s Opera Recording of the Year). Joyce’s other albums include her singular EDEN, the acclaimed Winterreise with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Grammy Award winning Songplay, In War & Peace, the 2017 Best Recital Gramophone Award, Stella di Napoli, Grammy-Award-winning Diva Divo and Drama Queens. Other honours include the Gramophone Artist and Recital of the Year awards, as well as an inaugural inductee into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.

About Workshops and Master Classes
Artists on the rise are given valuable access to world-class performers and composers through free workshops and master classes for young professional musicians (ages 18–35), created by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI). Participants are selected after responding to an open call for auditions. These up-and-coming musicians receive personal coaching and mentoring from leading artists, helping them to reach their artistic and professional goals. Previous workshops and master classes presented by WMI have featured Mitsuko Uchida, Black Thought, Marilyn Horne, the Kronos Quartet, Zakir Hussain, Abdullah Ibrahim, Bobby McFerrin, Brad Mehldau, Paquito D’Rivera, and more celebrated artists across multiple genres.
 

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Program Information
Thursday, October 10 at 4:00 p.m.
Friday, October 11 at 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, October 12 at 4:00 p.m.
Resnick Education Wing
JOYCE DIDONATO MASTER CLASS

Bridget Esler, Soprano
Michelle Mariposa, Mezzo-Soprano
Ben Reisinger, Tenor
Robert Ellsworth Feng, Bass
Joel Harder, Piano
Justina Lee, Piano

Lead support for workshops and master classes is provided by Beatrice Santo Domingo.

 

 

Ticket Information

Tickets, priced at $25, can be purchased on the Carnegie Hall website, carnegiehall.org, by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, or by visiting the Carnegie Hall Box Office at West 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Each ticket is subject to a $10 convenience fee. Tickets $25 and under are subject to a $4 convenience fee.

For more information on discount ticket programs, including those for students, Notables members, and Bank of America customers, visit carnegiehall.org/discounts. Artists, programs, dates, and prices are subject to change.

 

Photo: Chris Lee