Kiera Duffy

Soprano

American soprano Kiera Duffy is recognized for both her gleaming high soprano and insightful musicianship in repertoire that encompasses Handel, Bach, and Mozart to the modern sounds of Berg, Glass, and Zorn.

This season, Ms. Duffy debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra in Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate conducted by Harry Bicket and returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Knussen’s “O Hototogisu! fragment of a Japonisme” conducted by Daniela Harding. Last season, she appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic as Le Feu/Princesse in L’enfant et les sortilèges, soprano soloist in Messiah with the Kansas City Symphony, and Lembit Beecher’s world premiere opera Sophia’s Forest in Philadelphia. Ms. Duffy also sang a world premiere by composer Michael Hersch with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the Ojai and Edinburgh Festivals.

Ms. Duffy recently earned the highest critical praise for the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves as Bess McNeill at Opera Philadelphia. She has also been seen as Le Feu/La Princesse in the Laurent Pelly production of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy in Japan under the leadership of Maestro Ozawa, her Metropolitan Opera debut as a Flower Maiden in the new production of Parsifal conducted by Daniele Gatti, which was an HD broadcast, and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire. She was seen at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in “The Illuminated Heart” in selections from Mozart’s operas. A specialist in modern and rarely heard operas, she has been seen as Queen Tye in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten with the Atlanta Opera, Ghita in Vicente Martín y Soler’s rarely performed opera Una cosa rara at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Violet Beauregard in the European premiere of The Golden Ticket and Florestine in Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles at the Wexford Festival, as well as the Center for Contemporary Opera’s new production of Morton Feldman’s only “anti-opera” Neither at the Brut Wien.

Ms. Duffy was a finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is featured in the film “The Audition” which was recently released on DVD by Decca. She was an accomplished pianist before pursuing singing and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College. Ms. Duffy is the recipient of numerous awards and recognition from such esteemed organizations as the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Philadelphia Orchestra Greenfield Competition, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Young Concert Artists International Competition. In addition to her active performing career, Ms. Duffy is Associate Professor and Head of the Undergraduate Voice Studio at the University of Notre Dame.

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