Artist Biographies: Jennifer Foster

Soprano Rapunzel/Guendolen in Lou Harrison's "Rapunzel"

Lauded for the tenderness, warmth and security of her singing, soprano Jennifer Foster has built an enviable reputation as one of the more prominent emerging artists in the United States.

Foster made her professional debut stepping in at last-minute's notice as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte with the Los Angeles Music Center Opera. She was invited to become a resident artist with Los Angeles Opera the following season where she sang the roles of Helena in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and roles in Janacek's The Makropoulos Case, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Strauss' Ariadne Auf Naxos. She has since gone on to perform with a number of prominent opera companies and symphony orchestras around the country.

She appeared twice with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl: with Esa-Pekka Salonen in Mahler's Symphony No. 4 in 1992 and Lawrence Foster as Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. She has also appeared with the New World Symphony Orchestra under Lief Bjaland (Nielsen's Symphony No. 3), the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra under Gisèle Ben-Dor (Beethoven's Symphony No. 9), the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra and the Florida West Coast Symphony, both conducted by Leif Bjaland, the Pacific Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival where she has appeared regularly for several seasons. In the realm of opera she has toured with Western Opera Theatre (Adele in Die Fledermus) and performed with Florida Grand Opera, (a Young Artists production of La Traviata. She made her European debut at the Aldeburgh Festival as Anne Truelove in The Rake's Progress and has sung at the Verbier International Festival in a concert with Bobby McFerrin.

Foster recently made her debut with the Cantata Singers of Boston in Stravinsky's Les Noces and was reengaged in January 2000 for the world premiere of World Wheel by Andy Vores. She has been soloist regularly with the Delray Beach Chorale and has appeared with the Corona del Mar Baroque Festival, Orange Coast Chorale, Ventura County Master Chorale, Pacific Chorale, the William Hall Chorale - with which she recorded the album "Amazing Grace: Folk Songs and Spirituals" for Klavier Records, - Irvine Camarata, Long Beach Chamber Chorale, San Francisco Choral Society, Schola Cantorum, the Palo Alto Oratorio Society and the State University of New York at Purchase.

In 1999 Jennifer Foster made her debut at the Hot Springs Music Festival, where she recorded music of Creole Romantic Composers, recently released on the Naxos Label. She will return to the Tucson Winter Festival in March 2000 for Falla's El Amor Brujo and Respighi's Il Tramonto.

Foster received her degree from Chap.m.an College. She studied at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, the American Center for Music Theater Training and the Aspen Music Festival. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions: a past winner of the NATS-LA Young Artist Award, a Viktor Fuchs Memorial Award, Long Beach Mozart Festival Competition, the Pasadena Opera Guild, the Western and Southeastern Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions, Musical Arts Club of Orange County, the Opera Guild of Southern California, Opera 100 of Laguna Hills, and the Liberace Foundation.