About this Artist
"Her voice with its pure, incisive and delicate timbre radiates tenderness in the middle register, while she floats her golden high register to the limits of audibility ." - Le Monde
Praised for her vocal beauty, seamless technique, and abundant musicality, Nadine Sierra is being hailed as one of the most promising, young talents in opera today. She was named the Richard Tucker Award Winner in 2017 and was awarded the 2018 Beverly Sills Artist Award by the Metropolitan Opera. Having made a string of successful debuts at the Met, Teatro alla Scala, Opéra national de Paris, and Staatsoper Berlin, she has become a fixture at many of the top houses around the world. On August 24th, 2018, her debut album, There’s a Place for Us, was released under the Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music labels.
In the 2021/22 season, Sierra makes her house debuts with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino for the first time as Violetta (La traviata), and at the Bavarian State Opera as Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), a role she also sings at Teatro di San Carlo and The Metropolitan Opera. Moreover, she appears as Gilda (Rigoletto) at Opéra de Paris and Teatro alla Scala. In concert, she performs in Recital with Palm Beach Opera and in concert with Berliner Philharmoniker, Turku Music Festival, Opera Liège, Wiener Konzerthaus, Klangvokal Festival Dortmund and at Salle Gaveau.
Ms. Sierra’s most recent seasons included the roles of Lucia at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Musetta (La bohème) at Opera Las Palmas, Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at San Francisco Opera, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) and her signature role of Gilda under the baton of Daniel Barenboim in a new production of Rigoletto at the Staatsoper Berlin, where she also reprised Nannetta and debuted as Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier); Susanna and Gilda at the Metropolitan Opera, and her highly anticipated house and role debut as Manon at the Opéra national de Bordeaux, followed by Juliette. Concert appearances included the debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra and newly appointed Metropolitan Opera Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Maria (West Side Story) with Antonio Pappano at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Teatro La Fenice’s televised Capodanno celebration, the Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall, and her concert debuts in Prague, Bordeaux, and Baden-Baden. She appeared in recitals at Grand Théâtre de Genève and in Kansas City (Harriman-Jewell Series) and she joined Andrea Bocelli at Madison Square Garden in NYC, TD Garden in Boston, PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Capital One Arena in Washington, and returned to Paris, Dallas, and Mexico City to give solo concerts.
Other notable engagements from past seasons include the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro La Fenice, Nannetta at the Staatsoper Berlin, Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Flavia (Eliogabalo), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Gilda (Rigoletto) and Norina (Don Pasquale) at Opéra National de Paris. She has also performed Gilda, Zerlina, Ilia in Idomeneo and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera. At the San Francisco Opera, she has performed Lucia, Musetta, Pamina, and Contessa and in 2016, she and Leo Nucci made headlines after her house debut in Rigoletto at Teatro alla Scala when, on opening night, they were prompted by the audience to encore the duet, breaking a La Scala tradition dating back to Toscanini. Among many of her concert appearances ranging from Carnegie Hall, Arena di Verona, Musikverein in Vienna, Tanglewood and Ravinia music festivals, Dallas Opera, Park Avenue Armory in NYCm, the soprano also had the privilege and honor of performing twice at the U.S. Supreme Court for the Honorable Justices.
Throughout Ms. Sierra’s young career, she has taken home several awards and is the youngest winner to date for both the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as recounted by Nick Romeo in his book Driven: Six Incredible Musical Journeys (2011), a chapter of which is devoted to Sierra’s Grand Finals triumph. She also took home first prizes in 2010 at the George London Competition, Gerda Lissner International Competition, and Loren Zachary Competition, and was a recipient of a Richard Tucker Music Foundation Study Grant. In 2013, she placed first at the Neue Stimmen, Caballé, and Veronica Dunne International Singing Competitions, and won a Richard Tucker Music Foundation Career Grant.
Ms. Sierra fell in love with opera at a young age, after watching a VHS of La bohème, and began voice lessons at the age of six in her home state of Florida. Although she made her professional debut as a teenager with the Palm Beach Opera, she decided to continue studying, and received her bachelor’s degree from Mannes College the New School for Music. Following graduation, she went on to participate in the Adler Fellowship Program at the San Francisco Opera, forming a lasting relationship with the company.