Lindsay Kesselman, soprano
Hailed by Fanfare Magazine as "simply gorgeous...with a fully loaded palette of tone color" Lindsay Kesselman is a soprano quickly becoming known for her soulful singing and her exemplary musicianship. She passionately advocates for contemporary music, actively commissioning and collaborating with a diverse array of composers to create unique, groundbreaking, and dramatically-inspired works for the voice.
Recently, she has worked with such composers as Louis Andriessen, John Corigliano, Philip Glass, David Lang, Steve Reich, Amy Beth Kirsten, Abbie Betinis, and Hannah Lash and has recently released her debut album of American contemporary music, entitled If this world could stop, on the Bad Wolf Music label, a joint venture with composer Amy Beth Kirsten. Bad Wolf Music is also home to an ensemble, HOWL, which gave its inaugural performance in February 2014. More information can be found at: www.badwolfmusicgroup.org
In 2012-2014 she sings with the Philip Glass Ensemble on an international tour of Philip Glass' ground-breaking opera Einstein on the Beach, which includes 14 cities and the Latin American premiere of the piece. In 2013 this production won the prestigious Laurence Olivier award for Best New Opera Production.
Kesselman is also the resident soprano with the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and in that capacity has performed music by Joseph Schwantner, Louis Andriessen, Amy Beth Kirsten, Kieren MacMillan, Chris Cerrone, the premiere of Falling by Mathew Rosenblum, and a staged production of Kieren MacMillan's Drunken Moon and Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire.
This fall Kesselman sang the premiere of The End of Knowing, a song cycle by Robert Beaser with Dr. Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony. She will sing additional performances of the work with Dr. Jamie Nix and the Columbus State University Wind Ensemble, both in Georgia and at Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville for the annual CBDNA convention.
Other upcoming performances include John Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, the premiere of a song cycle by John Mackey in November 2015 with Dr. Kevin Geraldi and the UNC Greensboro Wind Ensemble, and tours to Chicago and Toronto with HAVEN (Kesselman’s trio with Kimberly Cole Luevano, clarinet and Midori Koga, piano.) HAVEN will also release its second album, Atonement, in spring of 2015.
Recent engagements include Kesselman’s Carnegie Hall debut singing Corigliano’s Mr. Tambourine Man, Louis Andriessen’s La Commedia (Béatrice) in April as part of the Andriessen 75 Festival with the Great Noise Ensemble, collaborating with Tony Arnold and the Adrian Symphony (MI) on Virtue, a new piece by Christopher Theofanidis, performances with MIRAGE, Kesselman's new collaboration with cellist Nicholas Photinos (eighth blackbird) and pianist Yasuko Oura at the Atlas Theater in Washington D.C. and Constellation in Chicago, the premiere of Violations: The Loading Dock Project by Hannah Lash at Yale University, Haydn's Nelson Mass in metro Chicago, the music of Amy Beth Kirsten in recital at Roosevelt University with members of eighth blackbird and Third Coast Percussion, and a recital tour with HAVEN of Abbie Betinis' song cycle Nattsanger that culminated in a recording, Bright Angel, recently released on the Fleur de Son Classics label.
Other recent appearances include Orff’s Carmina Burana and Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem with the Akron Symphony Orchestra (Ohio), a holiday concert with the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra (Pennsylvania), Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with members of the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Cleveland Heights Chamber Orchestra, and several concerts with Houston’s Camerata Ventapane at the 2nd Annual Baroque Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. As a result of winning an Encore Grant from the American Composers’ Forum in 2008, Kesselman was presented in a recital of music by Abbie Betinis at The Schubert Club in St. Paul, MN, as well as at Rice and Kent State Universities.
Kesselman holds degrees in voice performance from Rice University and Michigan State University. She currently lives in Winston Salem, NC with her husband, conductor Christopher James Lees.
