Mariette Simpson portrait by Lisa Kohler
Born in the United States, she studied at Temple University, Philadelphia, and the State University of New York.
She made her Glyndebourne debut as Maria/Porgy and Bess in 1986, and has since sung the role in Los Angeles and Washington, before touring the opera in concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She has sung with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe, and made her Carnegie Hall debut as a soloist in Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody (with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the late Robert Shaw). Concerts include her New York Philharmonic debut in Mendelssohn’s Elijah (under Masur); Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater (under Rattle with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics); Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (under Barenboim with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). She records for the Telarc label.