About this Artist
SUSAN BICKLEY (Mama / Voice of Tzippy [Female Wild Thing]) is firmly established as one of the most accomplished mezzo-sopranos of her generation, with a wide repertory encompassing Baroque, 19th- and 20th-century dramatic roles, and contemporary repertoire. In May 2011 she received the prestigious Singer Award at the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards, the highest recognition for live classical music in the U.K.
Bickley has sung on many of the world’s great stages, with conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, Antonio Pappano, and Mark Wigglesworth. Operatic highlights include Opéra de Paris, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House, the Salzburg Festival, Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, Staatsoper Unter den Linden conducted by Daniel Barenboim, and English National Opera.
On the concert platform Bickley has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Stravinsky Requiem Canticles, has sung Ligeti’s Requiem and George Benjamin’s Upon Silence at the Salzburg Festival, opened the 2008 Edinburgh International Festival, and regularly appears at the BBC Proms. Performances during recent seasons include Alexander Nevsky and Götterdämmerung with the Hallé Orchestra, the latter of which was recorded for commercial release and won Best Opera Album at the 2010 Gramophone Awards. Recent engagements include La Madre in Luigi Nono’s Al gran sole carico d’amore at Berlin Staatsoper, La Nourrice Ariane et barbe-bleue for her house debut with Frankfurt Oper, Brangäne for Welsh National Opera and Edinburgh Festival, and Storge Jephtha for the Buxton Festiva.
Engagements in 2012/13 include roles in a new production of Julietta for English National Opera, her stage role debut as Ortrud Lohengrin with Welsh National Opera, Florence Pike Albert Herring for Opéra de Toulouse and her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel. Other highlights this season are Alice in Wonderland with NDR Hambug Symphony Orchestra, Where the Wild Things Are at the Barbican and recital appearances at the Wigmore Hall. Future engagements include roles for the Royal Opera House, Dallas Opera and New York City Opera.
On the recital platform, Bickley has appeared with Roger Vignoles at the Kennedy Center in Washington and with Julius Drake at St. John Smith’s Square and Oxford Lieder Festival. In the fall of 2011 she performed songs and part-songs by Haydn at the Wigmore Hall with András Schiff.
Susan Bickley’s other recorded repertoire includes songs by Ivor Gurney with Iain Burnside; Handel’s Serse, Theodora, Solomon; Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, Dido and Aeneas; Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans; Reynaldo Hahn’s Songs; George Benjamin’s Upon Silence; Thomas Adès’ America: A Prophecy; and Simon Bainbridge’s Ad ora incerta and Primo Levi songs.