Karen Holvik |
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Karen Holvik, soprano Karen Holvik brings a wealth of experience in a wide range of musical styles to her performances. Since earning a master’s degree and performer’s certificate in opera at the Eastman School of Music, Ms. Holvik has pursued an eclectic musical path, building a large repertoire of concert music, oratorio and operatic roles. Highlights of her work in regional opera include appearances with Houston Grand Opera’s Spring Opera Festival, Skylight Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Opera Illinois, Anchorage Opera, Texas Opera Theater, and Western Opera Theater, singing roles including Constanze, Lucia, Juliet, Adina, Micaela, Marzelline and Baby Doe. She has toured extensively in the United States, and has appeared in Canada and Western Europe singing both popular and classical repertoire. She has been successful in many competitions, including the American Opera Auditions, Liederkranz Foundation, Oratorio Society of New York, Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, and Joy in Singing, which sponsored her debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. The Richard Tucker Gala Concert marked her Avery Fisher Hall debut, an event that was recorded by RCA Victor Red Seal and shown nationally on PBS, and she made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Handel’s Messiah with the Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra. Having begun her singing life in the world of popular music and jazz, Ms. Holvik has long been a champion of contemporary American song and operatic repertoire, and has premiered works by John Musto, Ricky Ian Gordon, Aaron Jay Kernis, James Sellars, Stewart Wallace, Richard Wilson and Tom Cipullo. She has appeared on television, radio and in concert with the New York Festival of Song, and appears with baritone William Sharp and pianist Steven Blier on a NYFOS recording released by Koch International, Zipperfly & Other Songs by Marc Blitzstein. After teaching at Vassar College and New York University, in September of 2004 she joined the faculty of the Eastman School of Music. |