Dawn Upshaw

Dawn Upshaw (born July 17, 1960) is an American soprano. She is the recipient of several Grammy Awards and has released a number of Edison Award-winning discs; she performs both opera and art song, and her repertoire spans Baroque to contemporary. Many composers, including Henri Dutilleux, Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Kaija Saariaho, have written for her. In 2007, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.MacArthur Foundation
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Early life

Dawn Upshaw was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She began singing while attending Rich East High School in Park Forest, Illinois and was the only female ever promoted to the top choir (the Singing Rockets) as a sophomore, according to choir director Douglas Ulreich. She received a B.A. in 1982 from Illinois Wesleyan University, where she studied voice with Dr. David Nott. She went on to study voice with Ellen Faull at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, earning her M.M. in 1984. She also attended courses given by Jan DeGaetani at the Aspen Music School. She was a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions (1984) and the Walter M. Naumburg Competition (1985), and was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Young Artists Development Program. Since her start in 1984, Upshaw has made more than 300 appearances at the Metropolitan Opera.

Career

Upshaw came to international fame with her performance on the million-selling recording (1992), with David Zinman, of Symphony No 3 by Henryk Górecki, known as the ''Symphony of Sorrowful Songs'' (''Symfonia pieśni żałosnych'').

She has premiered more than twenty-five new works, notably Henri Dutilleux's song-cycle ''Correspondances'', and has embraced several pieces created for her, including the Grawemeyer Award-winning opera ''L'Amour de Loin'' by Kaija Saariaho, ''The Great Gatsby'' by John Harbison, the nativity oratorio ''El Niño'' by John Adams, and Osvaldo Golijov's highly acclaimed chamber opera ''Ainadamar'' and song cycle ''Ayre''. In 2009, she premiered David Bruce's song cycle ''The North Wind was a Woman'' at the gala opening of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Centre's season.

In addition to her operatic recordings, she has also sung the title role in the first complete recording of the score of Gershwin's '' Oh, Kay!''. She has also recorded albums of songs by Vernon Duke and Rodgers and Hart. Upshaw was a guest of President of the United States Bill Clinton and Mrs. Clinton on the NBC special ''Christmas in Washington''. The BBC
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