A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, mezzo-soprano LORRAINE HUNT LIEBERSON began her musical career as a violist. A consummate recitalist and concert singer and a riveting operatic performer, her repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary. On the opera stage she has excelled in roles as diverse as Ottavia (Monteverdi), Ariodante (Handel), Sesto (Mozart), Carmen (Bizet), Myrtle Wilson (Harbison), and Didon (Berlioz).

Hunt Lieberson's activities during recent seasons include a return to Glyndebourne to reprise her triumphant portrayal of Irene in the Peter Sellars production of Handel's Theodora; Jocasta (Oedipus Rex), and Phaedra at the BBC Proms; her debut in the role of Mélisande with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink; performances and a recording of Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas; and John Adams' El Niño at the Concertgebouw, the Chatelet in Paris, in San Francisco, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles and in New York.

Concert highlights include Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen and Symphony No. 3 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and James Levine; Berg's Seven Early Songs with the Berlin Philharmonic under Nagano; Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été in Paris with Roger Norrington and in the San Francisco Bay Area with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan; and L'enfance du Christ at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and Sir Charles Mackerras.

Hunt Lieberson's recent recordings include Bach Cantatas Nos. 82 and 199 (Nonesuch, 2003) and Handel arias with Harry Bicket and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Avie, 2004). Among her honors and awards are a Grammy nomination for Britten's Phaedra with the Hallé Orchestra and Kent Nagano (Erato, 1996) and Musical America's 2001 Vocalist of the Year.

She makes her home in Santa Fe, New Mexico with her husband, composer Peter Lieberson, and their dog Coyito.