Mezzo-soprano MARY NESSINGER has been heard in concert, recital, and opera throughout the United States and Europe, at venues including Carnegie, Alice Tully, Avery Fisher, and Merkin Halls; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C.; and Jordan Hall and the Gardner Museum in Boston. She has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin, the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.

In addition to works from the standard repertoire, Nessinger has devoted a large portion of her musical life to the performance of new music. She has enjoyed a close working relationship with some of contemporary music’s brightest and most innovative composers. Nessinger obtained her Bachelor of Music degree, cum laude, at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, and afterwards studied at the Eastman School of Music with Seth McCoy and Jan DeGaetani and in New York with Chloe Owen. She has served on the voice faculty of Princeton University, and is currently a Lecturer in Voice at Vassar College.

As a chamber musician Nessinger has collaborated with artists including Peter Serkin, Mitsuko Uchida, Robert Spano, Ida Kavafian, Fred Sherry, David Shifrin, Daniel Phillips, Peter Wiley, and Martin Lovett. She has been a soloist with the Baltimore, Grand Rapids, Jacksonville, and London Symphonies, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Her collaborative work has found her performing with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the New Millennium Ensemble, the Hebrides Ensemble (Scotland), the Brentano, Colorado, Pacifica, Orion, and Endellion String Quartets, and as a guest artist at Tanglewood and at the Ravinia Festival.

Nessinger has recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, CRI, New World, Naxos, Ondine, Mode, and Koch International labels, and she is particularly proud of two recent releases of monodramas written specifically for her: Lee Hyla’s Lives of the Saints and Suma Beach on BMOP/Sound; and Eric Moe’s Tri-Stan on Koch International. She lives in New York City with her husband, cellist Ted Mook, and two beautiful daughters.