Jennifer Aylmer - Rodelinda

Soprano

American soprano Jennifer Aylmer’s effervescent personality, pliant vocalism and excellent musicianship have combined to make her one of the most engaging performers of her generation.  The Chicago Sun-Times has observed that audiences “bask in the aural delight of Aylmer’s dazzling shifts from regal command to cool insouciance and fatally attractive seduction.”
 
Acclaimed for her “awesome accuracy” by The New York Times, Miss Aylmer is in demand for contemporary opera projects.  This season she makes her Metropolitan Opera debut creating the role of Bella in Tobias Picker’s opera An America Tragedy. Librettist Gene Scheer adapted Theodore Dreiser's monumental work of American naturalism for the operatic stage. The world premiere production will be directed by Olivier Award-winning director Francesca Zambello and conducted by James Conlon. She makes her debut at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis performing Rose Maurrant in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene this season as well. The performances of the James Robinson production will be conducted by Music Director Stephen Lord.  Jennifer Aylmer previously created the role of Amy in the world premeire of Mark Adamo’s popular opera Little Women which Christopher Larkin led for Houston Grand Opera.  For Austin Lyric Opera, Jennifer Aylmer performed Stella in Brad Dalton’s production of André Previn’s A Street Car Named Desire.  She has performed Benjamin Britten’s Governess in The Turn of the Screw in performances conducted by Artistic Director Joel Revzen at Berkshire Opera, and Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in performances conducted by Artistic Director Ward Holmquist at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and at Aspen Opera Theatre in the Ed Berkeley production conducted by Robert Spano.  She also appeared with the Aspen Opera Theatre as Layla in the Ed Berkeley production of Bright Sheng’s The Song of Majnun (conducted by Bruno Ferrandis) and gave the North American premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Ligeia  (role of Rowena).  With the Aspen Festival Orchestra, she performed the role of the Virgin Mary in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher, and the role of Cynthia Reid in Bernard Rand’s Bella Donna, which was written for Miss Aylmer.  David Zinman conducted both works.
 
Jennifer Aylmer added the role of Sophie in Richard Strauss’s twentieth century masterpiece Der Rosenkavalier to her repertoire in Minnesota Opera performances conducted by Richard Buckley. The soprano has performed Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel in James Robinson’s production at the New York City Opera which was conducted by Music Director George Manahan. She performed the Dew Fairy and prepared Gretel in Frank Corsaro’s production conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing while in the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Hilda Mack in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers (directed by Christopher Mattaliano and conducted by Randall Behr), Princess Ninette in Prokofiev’s L’Amour des Tres Oranges (directed by Frank Corsaro and conducted by Randall Behr) and Beatrice in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict were first performed by Miss Aylmer at The Juilliard Opera Center. She also performed Frasquita in Houston Grand Opera’s multi-media production of Carmen in the spring of 1998. In a lighter vein, the soprano enjoyed performances as Ernestine in Offenbach’s Monsieur Choufleuri at The Juilliard School and Gabrielle in his view of Paris in 1857, La Vie Parisienne, marking her Opera Boston debut.
 
Heralded as a “powerhouse singing actress” by The Boston Globe, Jennifer Aylmer is also in demand for standard repertory roles nationwide.  The soprano performed Gilda in Rigoletto at Austin Lyric Opera in performances conducted by Andreas Mitisek.  Her first performances of Nanetta in Verdi’s Falstaff were at Aspen Opera Theatre in performances led by Julius Rudel, followed by her first professional performances at Kentucky Opera in Christopher Mattaliano’s production conducted by Cal Stewart Kellogg. Subsequently, she was invited to perform Act III of Falstaff with Robert Spano and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Michigan Opera Theater audiences enjoyed her Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. The soprano has performed Rossini’s L’Occasione fa il Ladro (role of Berenice) and Il Viaggio a Reims (role of Modestina). This season she also covers Clorinda in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of La Cenerentola.
 
Mozart’s heroines have also served the soprano well. Jennifer Aylmer gave her first performances of Pamina at the New York City Opera in the 2003-2004 season and will make her Utah Symphony & Opera debut this season in performances of Die Zauberflöte to be conducted by Robert Tweter. Her first Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro was at Houston Grand Opera, followed by Orlando Opera performances conducted by Roger Cantrell. Barbarina was her New York City Opera debut role in the 1996-1997 season. She first performed Madame Silberklang in the Frank Corsaro production of Der Schauspieldirektor conducted by Kenneth Merrill at The Julliard Opera Center and repeated the role with Christopher Hogwood at the National Symphony Orchestra. Miss Aylmer appeared as Aminta in the lesser- known Mozart opera Il Re Pastore at Lake George Opera in a production directed by Drew Minter and conducted by Daniel Beckwith. She also performed the role of Elisetta in Il Matrimonio Segreto by Mozart’s contemporary Domenico Cimarosa in Joseph LoSchiavo’s production conducted by Daniel Beckwith at both Wolf Trap Opera and Lake George Opera.
 
Baroque opera highlights include performances as Emilio in Handel’s Flavio and Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando at the New York City Opera.  Miss Aylmer will reprise the role of Dorinda in her Atlanta Opera debut next season in Chas Rader-Shieber’s production which will be conducted by Kenneth Montgomery.  The soprano has performed the title role of Gluck’s Orphee et Eurydice opposite Ewa Podles at Carnegie Hall under the auspices of the Oratorio Society of New York and Acis and Galatea opposite John McVeigh under the auspices of the Detroit Oratorio Society.
 
Jennifer Aylmer is equally in demand as an orchestral soloist.  She has performed Handel’s Messiah in Mexico City, at SUNY Purchase and at Carnegie Hall, all under the auspices of the Oratorio Society of New York. Her concert repertoire includes Mozart ‘s Exsultate, jubilate K158a (Grand Teton Festival, Jahja Ling Conductor); Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi Conductor and Grand Teton Festival, Jahja Ling Conductor); Handel’s Judas Maccabeus (with Orchestra of St. Luke’s); Haydn’s Creation (Hololulu Symphony, Sam Wong Conductor); Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass (Queens College Choral Society) and The Creation (Minnesota Orchestra with Arnold Östman Conductor) and Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Rochester Philharmonic, Christopher Seaman Conductor). She has also appeared in opera highlights and Pops programs with the New Haven Symphony (CT) and the Wheeling Symphony (WV). Contemporary concert works performed include: Arvo Pärt’s Stabat Mater (Detroit Oratorio Society), Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Rochester Philharmonic, Christopher Seaman Conductor); Orff’s Carmina Burana (Apollo Chorus of Chicago); Lukas Foss’s Time Cycle (Brooklyn Philharmonic, Ilan Volkov Conductor), and Esa-Pekka Salonon’s Floof (Chicago Symphony Music NOW Series).  Most recently she made her Bay Area debut performing Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the San Francisco Symphony.
 
Dedicated to the art of the song recital, Jennifer Aylmer was selected to give a prestigious Alice Tully Hall Vocal Arts Debut Recital by The Juilliard School.  She is an alumna of the Marilyn Horne Foundation and has been presented on the Foundation’s “On Wings of Song” series in New York City, and nationally in Brownville (NB), Bedford (PA), and Buffalo (NY).  She is a regular artist with the New York Festival of Song appearing in thematic programs as diverse as “Rodgers and Duke” to “Latin Lovers” in New York, Maryland and Washington DC. Miss Aylmer has also been presented in recital by Berkshire Opera, Wolf Trap, Shelter Island (NY) Friends of Music, National Gallery of Art (Washington DC), The Cerritos Center (CA), Celebrity Concert Series (UT), Agnes Scott College (GA), Treasure Coast Concert Association (FL), and at Miller Theater, Columbia University in New York.
 
Jennifer Aylmer holds a Bachelor of Music degree and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and attended The Juilliard Opera Center where she was a recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant.  She was a member of the celebrated Houston Grand Opera Studio and attended Wolf Trap Opera as a Catherine Filene Shouse Career Grant Winner.  She has also placed second in the Oratorio Society of New York Competition and the Palm Beach Opera Competition.  She is a grant recipient from the Sullivan Foundation and the National Society of Arts and Letters.  Miss Aylmer was born in Oceanside, New York and currently resides in New York City.  Miss Aylmer studies with Rita Shane.